Aug 26

Written by:
Thursday, August 26, 2010 9:53 PM 

I have pretty much hated running my entire life. Twenty weeks ago, if you would have asked me about running, I would have said, "Yeah right, not me!" Honestly, I never in my life thought I would agree to run even a mile.

Sometime in April, my husband Jody,  and I were out to dinner and talking goals. Jody had a proposition for me-- if I would do a 10k, he would do a triathlon in June, the Deseret News 10k in July, and the SoJo Half in September.  All that, if I did one thing- one thing I hated. Well, I actually told him no. He persuaded me to a maybe and that was that.  I came home that night and thought about why I would even consider something like that. My husband has struggled with weight all his life, going up and down the whole time I have known him. It has been a struggle for me to see him all sorts of motivated one day, and the mojo fly right out the door the next. I know his goals and he had been expressing desire, but not making anything happen. Very.frustrating.  We also have his niece living with us, who needs some sort of hobby, direction, somewhere good and healthy to spend her time. After thinking about Jody's deal, I decided to check out a training plan-- I had to find out if it was going to kill me before I agreed to anything. It didn't look so bad at the beginning, so, equipped with faith in the "plan" and hope for a change in my husband and maybe even my niece, I agreed.

Several weeks into the plan, no one had begun training but me, but I knew that I had agreed to this and I wanted to see it to the goal. It was frustrating to know that I was only doing this for them, and they were not even doing anything to prepare. I knew that I was going to keep doing my part, so I just stuck with it. I found myself to the run 5 minutes, walk 1 week and I thought I would die. FIVE minutes of straight running? Well, I did it and I did not die! The next week, it was ten. Again, I thought I would die, but I did not, and guess what? I actually enjoyed running 10 minutes/ walk 1 x4. I ran 40 minutes in a 44 minute time frame. WOW. I honestly did not know I had it in me, I just had faith that as I worked my up and increased my time, I would be able to do it. And I did! About halfway in my training, there was a 5k in my city, so I signed up and did that. It was so awesome, I thought, "What if I like this and I want to do a half marathon?!" I decided there that, if I liked the 10k, I would definitely continue training for the SoJo Half.  My training went well, I found myself wanting to run every day. I went on a trip to Issaquah, WA (near Seattle) and had the opportunity to go running in that beautiful setting.

Eventually Jody started preparing. He did not do the triathlon, but I was not letting him or our niece out of the 10k. I figured they can walk it if they want, but they had to do it, no exceptions! We all completed the race, and it was awesome. At the end, I was thinking I could keep going, so I decided that was my answer, I am going to do a half, and Jody felt the same way.

It is easy to catch the running bug, and I am so grateful that my husband talked me into making these goals for myself! I have become addicted to this andI really look forward to dong the SoJo Half!