How I Became A Runner [Running]

Image by sophiea via Flickr

First a little history of me:
I never understood runners or the sport of running. Come on, just look at those people that are on the roads in the morning or early evenings. Look at the pain in their faces. Do they look like they are having a good time? I used to mock those people. I never went as far to yell at them while they were running or anything like that. I just never understood it. There is no good reason to run unless you are running from someone, something, or a fire.

In grade school, I was on the track and field team. I lasted one season and that was only because I found the shot put fun. In high school, I was on the swim team. Everyday, we had dry land exercises. It involved lifting weights, riding stationary bikes, and running. I used to agree to extra time on the bike or swim more laps instead of running. In college, I was in the band. Before band practice, there was a group of guys that would run laps before practice. I was not one of them. I tried to join them one day and hated it so much that I never did it again.

I hated running.

Fast forward about almost a year ago:
I was tipping the scales at 320 lbs. and not enjoying it one bit. I only had myself to blame because I walked to Taco Bell almost everyday and ate lunch from there. If it wasn’t Taco Bell then it was Pizza Hut. I had been kicking around the idea of running to lose weight. As much as I hated running, it seemed like the only option as I did not have access to a gym or pool and wasn’t going to pay for it. It just an idea. I hadn’t laced up my shoes once and thought about hitting the pavement.

I was sitting having lunch with a couple of co-workers, one of them who was James from Daily Trainings. The St. Jude Memphis Marathon had just happened and it came up during lunch. I am not sure who first said something about it but the conversation turned toward doing it in 2011. James does half iron mans for fun and I believe is half machine. Someone suggested that James, another co-worker and I all sign up for the marathon and do it next year.

I am not one to commit to something that I know I will never do. I knew there was no way that I would be able to do 26.2 miles a year from then. I agreed to do a half marathon (13.1) but only if the others would do it with me. James said he would do the full if we did the half. We all agreed to do it.

Fast forward to June 2011:
Almost everyday since then, James asked how my training was coming. We both knew I had yet to even walk a step towards training. We both knew that if I committed to something then I would make sure I completed it. Registration opened. I didn’t sign up but I watched the progress on Facebook. I am friends with a lot a people who work at St. Jude (I used to work there) and liked the marathon page so I saw it filling up. With less than six months until the race I decided I needed to start training.

I started running. I downloaded Couch to 5K, Nike +, Runkeeper, and whole slew of apps to help me train (that will be a blog post latter). I hit the road. It wasn’t easy and at first it was not fun. Over time, I have come to enjoy it. I actually get upset when I miss a run because of life. In fact, I am on the way out the door now to log some miles.

Oh and I signed up for the half before it filled up. Due to some circumstances outside his control, the other co-worker didn’t sign up in time. James is running the full marathon.

My training is going well but I did get sidelined by an injury (more on that in a future blog post) but I am back on the road.