And then running seemed like a good idea...

I hate running.

There is really no way to sugar coat it. When I run I feel like a fish out of water. My arms flail wildly, my face turns about eight thousand shades of red, my curly hair expands to epic proportions, my breathing gets all short and gaspy, and more often than  not either my legs or my lungs feel like they are going to explode - sometimes even at the same time!

So why on earth would I decide running was a good idea? Well, this most recent venture stems back to my first teaching practicum. I was staying with my aunt and uncle, teaching up a storm (English 8 and Social Studies 11) and somehow or other I decided I wanted a challenge. Because clearly reading 50 books in a year while going to school full time, working part time, volunteering regularly, and trying to balance a 75% teaching load for five weeks wasn't enough.

Anyway, running is the challenge I chose. So I was browsing around on the Running Room website and discovered a 10K close to my hometown about a month away. I was sold. Then I discovered a 5K two weeks away (two days after finishing practicum) in my hometown. I was ecstatic. I registered for both and started running. Well. I ran once. Cue incapacitating cold. Not only did this bring my running plans to a standstill, it also seriously slowed me down on practicum, but I digress.

So I have the death-cold for about a week. Now I've got one week of practicum (which I clearly hadn't prepped for) left and about seven days until my first run. My future career obviously takes priority and running again gets thrown on the backburner. So I do my first run, a 5K, with only one practice run of probably 1.5K distance. Never mind that the course was one of those "run up the mountain, run down the mountain" situations. Blegh.

Official 5K time? 37:57 for about a 7.5 min/km pace. Not so excellent considering it was only 5K, but then again not so bad considering my general lack of preparation. Not going to lie, I was pretty proud of myself.

But the big challenge, the 10K was still two weeks away. In the next two weeks I tried to step up my running. I figured I would run every other day. My plan was to do 3K three times, 6K two times, 9K once, and then do the 10K. I was sort of managed to do this - but not really. I ran 3K three times, 6K once (which actually turned out to be more of a 5.1K - oops), and that was it. I tried to do the second 6K but ended up failing miserably. I ran about a kilometer before I gave up, turned around, and went home. Running had defeated me big time.

So race day arrives. I carpool to the race with a good friend who is also running. I do the ridiculous group stretching that starts the day. I line up near the end of the pack (let's not kid ourselves), and then the gun fires. A couple minutes pass, and then the crowd around me starts to move. I'm running, I'm in the zone (or something) and before I know it I have passed the first kilometer marker. I keep running, past the 2K mark, the 3K mark, then I've got the early stages of the exploding lung thing going on so I take a walk break. Run, walk, run, walk. That's how it goes for the next 5K or so. Then end is nearing. 2K left. And let me tell you, that was the longest 2K of my life. Remember, my longest training run was about 5K, so I'm exhausted. That, and I definitely didn't have enough breakfast to fuel me through 10K - live and learn I suppose!

Official 10K time? 1:06:54 for an approximate pace of 6.8min/km. Better.

So that is my running history. I intended on keeping up with running when I moved back to Victoria for summer school - but as usual life got in the way. So here we are, two months later, and I hadn't run at all. I have registered for a 10K in September, and I have decided to take on a half marathon training plan so that I can (if all goes well) do a half on October 16. This is the plan. Whether it works or not remains to be seen.