natenkellnfamily

Wow!!  I'm really not doing so well at this.  I will try to do better.

So, our town has an awesome 4th of July celebration complete with a 5k that I have never participated in.  Last Friday, my sister called me to tell me that if I was going to run the 5k with her, I needed to start training by this Wednesday.  We had talked about me doing it, but I was pretty scared to try it.  I have never seriously run before.  I had to run in P.E. in middle school and I always failed the tests.  In high school, someone told me that I looked stupid running and it looked completely un-natural (I'm sure a big part of that was due to the rods in my back making it so I couldn't bend it).  I decided then that I would never be a runner.  But part of me really wanted to do it.  So, I told my sister that I would start it today so I could do my weeks Monday, Wednesday, and Friday instead of having to switch on Wednesdays.  I was pretty sure I was going to die on the first day.  Especially because my legs were already hurting from weeding my raspberries for 8 hours on Saturday.  But, I enlisted the support of some friends up here, found a podcast I could run to, and went to sleep "early" last night. 

My friends and I decided to "run" at 6:30 in the morning.  All night I was worried about not waking up in time.  I would startle awake, find out I had lots of time left, then struggle to go back to sleep.  I finally woke up at 6:00 and laid there for 9 minutes.  I finally just got up.  I showed up at 6:30 and neither of my friends did.  I found out later, one of them thought we were meeting at 6:00 and had already waited for us for 15 minutes in close to freezing temps and the other one's phone had died during the night and never went off (They both ran later today, I think).  Nathan had talked to me about how, if I wanted to do this, I needed to commit to it.  Even if everyone else dropped out.  This morning was my test.  I went anyway.  The first week is:  warm up for 5 minutes, then 8 times of running for 60 seconds/walking for 90 seconds, then a 5 minute cool down.  Doesn't sound too hard, but for me it seemed a little overwhelming.  So, when the first cue to start running sounded, I started running.  I was sure it was going to be one of those times where a minute would seem like an hour.  Like when you have to hold nasty tasting mouthwash in your mouth for a minute and accidentally swallow some and it burns your throat.  I listened to the music and didn't even have time to worry about it before it was cue-ing me to walk.  It did get harder towards the end, but I did it.  I really ran.  I was so proud of myself.  As I look at the weeks ahead, I start panic-ing, but then I remember my cute 7 year old nephew was able to do it all and even ran his first 5k on Saturday with his mom, brother, and sister.  I can totally do this, right?

Apparently, just running wasn't enough for me today.  When I got back home, my kids wanted to walk to school.  They have to cross a busy highway and I'm not way comfortable with them doing it by themselves, so I've been walking with them.  So, we walked to school (about 1/2 mile) and Zoey and I walked home.  Then, I had to go back to school to help Zoey's teacher.  Zoey wanted to walk back to school, so we did, then back home.  When it was time for Zoey to go to school, we were going to walk again, but her homework took longer then we thought, so I ended up driving her.  But my friend and I decided to ride bikes this afternoon (I'm trying to keep my knees good by riding my bike).  We rode in a wicked wind.  It was a bigger workout than I was expecting.  So, today was all about exercising.

1.  Tonight I'm grateful that I was able to run.  There were a lot of odds stacked against me:  I was tired, I hurt before I even started, I have never been successful at running, etc.  But I was still able to run.  I was successful.  And it felt great!  I'm also grateful for the stretching video my sister showed me.  It helped quite a bit.

2.  I am grateful that I had the energy to exercise more.  I'm grateful that I could still walk with my kids and ride with my friend.  Hopefully I didn't overdo it.

3.  I am grateful that our ward is so service oriented.  I love that they are willing to help out at the last minute, even if it's different from what they had planned that night.

4.  I am grateful for Advil.

5.  I am grateful for friends that are willing to run with me and ride bikes with me.  It's so much nicer to have someone to be accountable to and also someone who you can enjoy being with while you're exercising.