I Am (NOT) a Runner??!!

I am training for a 10K. Let me repeat that, with emphasis, because I am still trying to believe that I am actually saying that. I… AM TRAINING… FOR A 10K RUN!! If anyone had asked me three years ago if I could imagine myself running about 6.5 miles, I would have sputtered and doubled-over laughing. Once I caught my breath, I would have stated, in no uncertain terms and in a somewhat self deprecating tone, “I… am NOT… a runner.” But here I am, having just finished about a five-mile run, the salty grit still on my unwashed face, and I can state in equally uncertain terms, that I am training for a 10K. I am signed up. I have acquired the access to the gear bag and shoe chip. I am going to run with MARINES!!! I have become a runner.

I am planning to go to a political rally in Washington D.C. My first!! I am making a video blog about that, and if it turns out watchable, I’ll put it on You Tube. But the friend that I will be staying with told me he was signed up for the Marine Corp 10K run during the time I will be there, and I heard myself saying to him, “Oh! Well, I’ll run it too.” And thus it happens that a former one-to-two-miles-three-to-four-times-a-week, pseudo-runner has become a 10K runner. I went out today with a bit of fear; I will be running with Marines in Washington D.C., after all. Plus, since I run in Illinois, I am figuring that the hills are gonna be killers. I hit a head wind on the way back today and I thought, “What if I get a headwind AND a hill??!!” But I am also really looking forward to it. I started this whole thing on a tread mill at our health club two years ago quite by accident. I thought I would start working out with weights, and getting in shape, and I was committed to becoming “cream buff” as my cousin likes to say. But I found that the cardio part of my routine was the part I really liked. I could push a button on the tread mill and zone out. Actually, I did a TON of thinking about my next Avatar and I am getting close to getting it started, I think. So the running helped me meditate, really, and I am a better, stronger, faster person for it. I remember the first time I tried running as a form of exercise. I ran about ½ a mile, pulled a hammie and limped around for about 4 weeks. “See,” I told myself, “you’re not a runner.” That was about three years ago. And here I am today, still shy about saying it, thinking that all runners must run marathons and so I am still a runner-wanna-be, but I am, in fact, a runner. I’m addicted and proud.

I am also looking forward to chasing the cute rear ends of some hunky marines!! Semper Fi!!! Raarr!!