Running Away With It

Running has never made much sense to me, unless you're being chased. I've tried running as a form of exercise in the past, but due to a surgery that left my back weak, it was never ideal for me. It hurt. And was boring. Mostly it was boring.

A couple years ago during a time like this where I got on myself for following through this time with my diet and exercise goals, I found Spin and fell madly in love. It was awesome, as was my ass after a few weeks. But then I fell sick with mono after a late night, ill fated game of spin the bottle. I was in the hospital for a week as my liver and spleen recouped, and it took months to gain back enough energy to walk to the subway on Manhattan's Upper West Side, let alone spend 45 minutes in a spin class.

Then the energy came back. I tried going to spin but immediately was hard on myself for what I wasn't able to do and how my ass didn't look. I was starting back from the beginning and that pissed me off enough to give up.

Then my whole situation changed.

I was laid off and had to leave New York to stay with family. I don't have money available for a gym membership or the car to get me there even if I did. What I do have however (other than the couch I've spent most of my time sitting on) is a treadmill in my mom's basement and an iPod.

So a couple weeks ago I started walking on it. I'm used to walking everywhere, having lived in cities like New York or Chicago for the majority of the past ten years. I was building up the strength I lost somewhere within the cushions of my mom's couch. Then, out of pure boredom (ironically), I started to jog a little. But this time, rather than trying to run three miles right off the bat and then being pissed at myself for not being able to and hurting like mad the next day, I did it slow. In increments as suggested to me by runners.

I ran today, and although I didn't run for the whole 30 minutes, I did run more than I have previously and with more ease. I rocked out to some Miley Cyrus (I have my nieces to thank for this addition to my music library), Kanye West, Jay-Z, The Fratellis and Lynard Skynard, to name a few. I was grooving on that tread.

Then I did some pilates after stretching and when I curled up and saw my abdomen fold into that over-sized pootch it is right now, I didn't get pissed. I kept going. And every time I folded upwards I would say "Hi... It's been nice knowing ya!"

My sister in law suggested signing up for a 5K as a motivation to keep running, and download a 5k trainer podcast to get me there. I'm putting some serious thought into that, and I'm sorta amazed at myself. Run in an actual, organized race? This is something I've never dreamed I would ever do, or want to do for that matter. Lets be honest, unless I was drenched in gasoline and someone was behind chasing me with a lit torch. Or if there was Cheese at the finish line. (mmmmm... cheese.)

But I'm considering it without these added motivations. I'm considering it... for the fun of it (Gasp!). We're only officially a few hours into the journey and I can already see some changes on the horizon.