One Step at a Time -- Part I
Except for a brief period my freshman year in college when a friend bullied (to be fair, she remembers it as "encouraged") me to run with her every morning, I have never jogged. The whole process is unappealing to me -- even the word "jog" conjures up a not-so-pleasant image. Think about it. What do you picture going on inside your body when you hear that word?
I have, however, been a walker on and off throughout my life, more so when my children were still living at home and we lived in a quiet neighborhood in Cape where I could walk without fear of being hit by a car. Now, though, I live on a two-lane black-top road that is hilly and has absolutely no shoulder. If a car comes whizzing by, I'd have to resort to diving in a ditch. Therefore, I haven't walked (for exercise) for almost four years.
Well, that is going to change. Two weeks ago, after listening to friends rave about walking and running in ½-marathons, my daughter and I decided to sign up for one ourselves. Two of our close friends -- Keith, a runner, and his wife Allison, a walker -- told us about their next event, Go St. Louis, so we decided to sign up.
We logged on to the official race site and quickly discovered that the ½-marathon is out of the question. Unfortunately (actually, my brain is telling me to take the "un" off that word), the ½-marathon had already sold out. Jennifer wasn't about to give up that easily, and as she searched the site she discovered there were still openings for the 5K walk. Full of confidence, and not reading too carefully, we signed up, paid our fee, and congratulated each other on our healthy intentions.
I have to admit that, as a middle-aged American, I never really learned the metric system. All I know is that in this system there is a decimal point, and it is moved to the right or left depending on what mathematical function is being attempted and what prefix is attached to the main word. The main word, of course, depends on whether you're working with weight, distance, or mass (whatever that is). Anyway, as a result of my total lack of skill in the metric department, I have no idea how far we'll be walking. If someone could convert that 5K figure to something I'm more familiar with -- say, a football field -- I'd be fine. But I digress.
A few days later, I received an email congratulating me for registering and explaining how to pick up my race packet, etc. Reading the email, I noticed for the first time that our event begins at 7:30 in the morning! I couldn't believe it. Isn't the fact that I'm going to walk five K's good enough? Do I have to get up at the crack of dawn to be at the race site on time? Evidently, Jennifer felt the same way. I got a text message the same day, filled with frowny-emoticoms and textual whines, echoing my own feelings, but we will rise to the challenge, and we will walk.
I'll keep you posted on my progress, and I'd love to hear about your positive 5k, ½-marathon, or marathon experiences. Please, no horror stories -- I need all the encouragement I can get!
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