ready...set....go!

i'm proud to say that jenny and i have been doing really well at running.  well, i guess it's no surprise that jenny is.  hello...she's a runner.  but i've been doing really well too!

last week i finally ran a mile straight without stopping.  that was a big goal for me.  it was hard but it felt so good and i was so proud of myself.  we did the mile straight, plus more walking and more running for a few days.

over the weekend, i got it in my head that i wanted to try TWO miles straight. when jenny and i were texting our running plan for monday, i informed her of my goal and asked if i was being totally stupid? to go from running one mile to two miles in just a few days.  i'd die. i just knew i would.  i'd be a tenth into the second mile and just fall over dead. jenny would continue running, not even realizing i was dead on the ground until she reached my house.  it would be humiliating for my husband and son.  "wife died on the ground by running barely over 1 mile." ugh.

anyway, jenny assured me that i would not die on the ground as my visions proclaimed, but instead would run my 2 miles and succeed!  she was proud of me for even coming up with this goal on my own (probably because the 6 mile runner that she is was going crazy running intervals for 3 miles, poor thing).

monday morning, 6:30am, i walk out my front door to the very sleepy face of my friend.  we start walking down my street and start our nike gps apps at the very same instant.  practice has perfected the art of exactness. :)  we briskly walked for .75 of a mile.  then...jenny looked at me with eyebrows raised..."ready?!"  and i was.  we started running and just like i thought, the first mile was hard.  then, 1 thousand years later, the first mile was over.  and before i knew it, so was the second! i was elated! i did it! i ran two miles straight! we walked a bit, then we ran a bit, walked a bit and ran the rest of the way home.  our total run equaled 4.16 miles.

tuesday...not so easy.  i almost didn't make it through mile two but jenny coached me through it.  then she told me why it was so hard. we'd run a lot faster than we had the day before! hurray!

on wednesday, day 3, we walked half a mile, ran two, walked half a mile, ran one, then walked the other tenth mile home.  we ran a total of 3 miles total with only a short break in between miles 2 and 3.  we also decided that we would for sure run in a 5k this weekend.

WHAT?!?!

yup. i can hardly run and i'm running in a 5k this weekend.  i don't expect to finish anywhere near first, but i do expect to finish.  i'm nervous and excited and so happy to be doing something for myself and my health.  it feels good and i actually like it.  go figure. :)

much thanks to jenny and many props to myself (if i may say so)! i'm pumped!