Tomorrow will be exactly SEVEN months since I woke up and decided to try my hand at Couch to 5k. I had spent months fighting pain and swelling in my joints, especially my knees and ankles. At one point it was so bad, my rheumatologist gave me some super duper diuretics and I lost 9 pounds of fluid from my body, mostly my lower legs.
I was tired of being fat and winded and quite frankly, jealous of those people running down Peachtree as we drove down to eat a greasy breakfast on Saturday mornings.
The one goal I set at that moment was to go for a jog in Central Park during BlogHer. There seemed to be something magical about jogging around one of the most beautiful parks in the world, in the city that is my Happy Place.
A Twitter friend, Kelly, agreed to get up early on a kid-free morning to jog with a VERY slow me in Central Park. We ended up walking most of it because it was hot, I was swelling already, and it’s hard to talk and run at the same time!
Somehow I got talked into running a half marathon. I think that can be defined as the moment I officially lost my mind.
I’m running the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February. I’ll be running 13.1 miles in memory of my baby boy who would be ten this year. I’m running in memory of and in honor of the children and families who have made the Ronald McDonald House of Central Georgia their Home Away From Home. I’m running, as my friend Shoshana said, “for the life I am living, and for the life I am living for.”
Couch to 5k took a lot longer than it should have. About 4 months, actually, when it should have taken like 10 weeks. Arthritis is a bitch, but I was destined to finish it and run my first 5k.
My first 5k was in October, and I was lucky enough to have Sharon, a mom of a kiddo in Henry’s Scout Den, offer to run with me. Bless her heart, she’s run like nine billion half marathons and can run like 9 minute miles and she ran slooooow and walked and finished a 5k in just under 50 minutes with me. Just so I didn’t have to do it alone.
I threw up after this race and thought I would surely die. I thought I was done and couldn’t foresee being able to do this again EVER.
But then November brought the 5k celebrating the Ronald McDonald House’s tenth anniversary… I ran with friends, family, and now Teammates! It was a non-hilly course that was ULTRA hilly. Hurt, but I finished. And then the kid clocked a 9 minute mile in the fun run! Showoff!
I’m so glad to have these girls by my side. They’re faster than me, but they’re not letting me quit. They’re running the Disney Princess Half with me on Team Charlie’s Angels.
And I’m so grateful to have Sharon here locally who pushes me along… even when we’re donning jingle bells in Dunwoody for the Jingle Jog!
I’m slow and I hate every single second of this process. But by God, I’m doing it.
Today, almost exactly 7 months after I started, I ran a whole SEVEN MILES*.
That’s a little more than a 10k.
It’s a little less than the 15k I’ll run next Sunday.
It’s a little more than half of the half marathon I’ll run in 47 days.