I went running yesterday.

Remember my earlier braggadocio? My declaration that I must be afraid to take up running because I might actually be good at it? Well that theory has gone down the toilet…along with my running shoes. Ok, fine, I didn’t act on the temptation to toss the shoes. The notoriety of being known as the girl who plugged up a public toilet (and you just know the part that I plugged it with my sneakers wouldn’t end up in the gossip mills!) was more than I’d be able to handle.

There were five other runners besides me, two of whom had run a marathon before, all of whom were over a hundred pounds lighter than I (how I wish that was an exaggeration but sadly it isn’t). Can you imagine? I was one person carrying around two and a quarter of them! It’s enough to make one cry. I was dressed to the nines; I really looked athletic (looks can be deceiving!) in my predominantly black gear. I was wearing layers like nobody’s business and I looked ready to do this. Then we started. To give credit to my co-runners, they were all very patient and good about slowing down for me, which made me feel incredibly guilty for being the one who was slowing them down. I urged them many times to “go on without me” but they refused, perhaps because they thought I’d slink back to the office when they weren’t looking (tempting, oh so tempting). I developed shin splints early on and ended up walking more than running. Every so often the leader of the pack would ask if we wanted to jog for a bit (I think it was meant to be a rhetorical question) and I’d jog until I couldn’t any longer. We did a combination of running (them) and mostly walking (me) for about 25 minutes, which was about my limit: I and two novice runners headed back to the office, while the other three (two, possibly three of them marathoners) continued their run.

I’m glad I went for this run and despite the fact that it was hard—my face burned, the cold air burned my lungs, shin splints are not fun, the 40-50 stairs we had to climb were treacherous—I did it. I’ve committed to doing this at least once a week with coworkers, and the good thing is there are coworkers who go at my pace. I’m challenged to see how far I can run without becoming winded, although I won’t be afraid/ashamed if I have to slip back into walking mode.

I’m as sore today as if I went for a long hike, uphill both ways. Oh and I’ve decided that I haven’t yet earned the right to own the watch anymore. But I will.

Filed under: Job, NaBloPoMo, Operation 5K, flab gab by jummy