Brrrrrrrunning.

Well, my session with the personal trainer did not disappoint. I am officially walking like an 80 year old woman, sighing dramatically before starting a flight of stairs and practically weeping when faced with having to descend them (isn't that so much worse when you have sore quads?). I hope my legs loosen up a little bit by tomorrow so I can torture myself once again -- this time with a jog around the neighborhood.

I've never been a runner. Running a mile, even as a kid, has always been more of a challenge than I'd like to admit. I remember dreading the presidential fitness test in elementary school. Sure, it sucked not to be able to complete even one pull-up, but what sucked a thousand times more was having to Run The Mile. I faked ankle injuries to get out of it, and as I got braver in high school, I'd just park myself behind a bush to avoid at least a couple laps around the school (we didn't have a track where I took P.E.). When I did actually try to run, I'd feel that tightness in my chest and time would slow down. The 12 or so minutes it took me to complete a mile felt like hours. I'd watch the fast kids (normal kids?) breeze through a mile run in 8 minutes and wish it came that easy to me.

So now I'm 29, and I'm starting to feel like it's now or never. I need to embrace running, push myself a little bit, and have a goal to work toward. I decided to run a 5K before the big 3-0. And by the time I decided on this deadline it was mid-November, so there's only a few weeks left to join a race. I had been hoping to do the Reindeer Run this Saturday in Franklin, but I'm not ready. So next weekend's Snowflake 5K is my last chance. It's in Shelby Bottoms, which means it's flat, and I've been doing interval training so I actually feel pretty ready for it, save for the cold weather that's set in. I've read that running in the cold is actually easier than running in the heat, but I guess the hardest thing is actually leaving your house when it's cold. I'm working on that.

Well, now I've written on the internet that I'm running a 5k, so I guess it's really happening. Next Saturday. Yeesh.