I'm on my way!

Ten weeks ago, I would have said, "I'm not a runner. I've never been a runner, I'll never be a runner, and the only way you'll see me run is if someone is chasing me."

Don't get me wrong - I'm not a complete slug. Every now and then I'd take a long walk around my neighborhood, sometimes with my dog, sometimes with my husband, sometimes all by myself. I thought I was cool when I was going for one-mile walks two or three times a week.

Then my friend (let's call her "Jet") asked me if I wanted to do a beginners running program with her. She was already about a month into the program, but she was willing to "start over" with me so we could be on the same pace. I took a look at the program, got completely intimidated by what would be expected of me over the eight weeks of the training and was about to tell "Jet" that I wasn't into it. Then I looked at what would be expected of me during the first week - "Walk for 30 minutes at a comfortable pace," then "Walk for 5 minutes, jog for 30 seconds." Heck, even I can do that! So I told her I'd do it.

We live in Arizona. We had the brilliant idea to start this program in the middle of the summer. Therefore, we start between 5:15 am and 5:30 am. Most days, I get to see the sun come up. I love it!

I try to run five times per week. "Jet" and I usually do three or four days together, and then I run on my own on the other days. We've repeated a couple of the weeks of the program, but we're nearly at the end of the beginners training. Starting next week, we jog for 5 minutes and walk for 30 seconds. That gets us about 2.5 miles in our 30 minutes. After that, we run for 30 minutes with no breaks.

We're planning on doing a half-marathon in January. If I think about it, I still get intimidated, so I'm just focusing on what I'm doing now. I guess I am a runner after all!

Wish me luck!