Brian and Libby's Blog

Runnin', runnin', and runnin', runnin' and...

I've never really been what you might call "athletic." Sure, I played tennis in high school and I think we ran a little bit. I was always the badminton champion in gym class but I wouldn't really call that physical activity. I did join the JV lacrosse team in 8th grade but for some reason they made me the goalie and I quit after 2 weeks (me?? goalie??? I think they were trying to get me to quit).

Now I'm an intermittent exerciser - I join the gym, I go to the gym, I stop going to the gym, I quit the gym, repeat. When at the gym, I try to distract myself from the fact that I am putting any kind of strain on my body. I go to the Y because they have flat screen TVs on every piece of cardio equipment and I can distract myself by watching the food channel. One show equals the recommended amount of daily exercise, 30 minutes. I always exercise in intervals (walk, run, walk, or high intensity, extremely low intensity, moderate intensity) so as not to overexert myself, and when I do exercise for an entire hour it is always in some kind of aerobics class (during which I spend the majority of the time looking at how funny "everyone else" looks in the mirrors, thus distracting myself from the pain and anguish of whatever it is they have me doing).

One thing I am definitely NOT is a runner. I have never been able to run more than like a mile (if that) and I absolutely detest it. Not to mention, I am painfully slow and running is pretty embarassing. It's ingrained in my head - I am not a runner. I do not like to run. I am not made for running. I can't run.

For some reason, this wave of ambition came over me a few weeks ago when I found out a good friend of mine (also previously "not a runner") had recently run a 5k. Ok, for all of you die-hard runners out there, I know that a 5k is no marathon, but for some of us, it's still a great accomplishment. So the day after I found out, I was at the gym and thought, what the heck, let's see how far I can run. To my surprise it was further than I thought. So in typical Libby overzealous fashion, I decided (just 12 days prior to an upcoming race) that I wanted to run a 5k. In typical Libby protect myself fashion, I told no one but my husband and my new running mentor, the inspiration for my new goal (just in case I changed my mine the next morning).

So over the last week and a half I've only had the chance to run about 4 times but I've run the 3.1 mile distance in what I think is a reasonable time frame. Actually what's been hilarious is that after making the decision to reach this personal goal of mine, which I previously thought I was incapable of doing, I was quickly overcome with very jr. high like fears...what if no one wants to be my friend in running-world? What will I wear to the race? And the greatest of all my fears...WHAT IF I COME IN LAST PLACE?

The first two don't concern me as much but the last one haunts me (no really, I'm terrified). So in a wave of panic, I checked out coolrunning.com and found that you can see people's actual scores for races. Much to my relief, it looks like I'm in (or only slightly behind) the median range for a female. And I'm ok with being below average for now since I only became a "runner" (I use this term very loosely) ten days ago. So unless all of the slow people drop out, my greatest fear should not be realized this weekend (phew). Wish me luck on Saturday!

posted by Libby @ 8:21 AM