New Day, New Year, New Challenge

I'm not a runner. I'm not. I've avoided it all my life. The 'Mile' in elementary school was something I dreaded for months and avoided at all costs. I've never had the desire or the drive to even attempt running...until now.

My sister has asked me to join her and run a half marathon on May 2, 2010 (if you're counting, that's 16 weeks away). In a complete moment of insanity, I agreed. Why I agreed to this, I'll never know...but I did and I am going to attempt to finish with my head held high. My sister is an athelete. She has always been the athetetic one - the danceline, soccer superstar, track runner. Just four years ago, she competed in the Accenture Triathalon in Chicago. Since then, she's had two babies in two years but she's still an athelete. She runs 25-35 miles a week. She's a machine.

My close friends are all runners. Several of them have finished complete marathons...a couple have kept their finish lines at 13.1 miles...one runs just 5 and 10K's. Bottom line is that they all do it. And they all started distance running after high school. I'm trying to keep that in mind as I start this joruney myself. Everyone has to start somewhere.

So I've researched some training plans but they all state that to successfully participate, you need to be able to run for 30 minutes straight. All kidding aside, I don't think I can run for much more than 30 seconds straight...so I decided that was challenge #1. Learn to run.

I'm following an email course called "How to make 30 Minute Running a Habit in 21 days" (3 weeks). Once I complete that course, I will then begin Hal Hignon's "Half Marathon Training for Novice Runners" which is 12 weeks long. That totals 15 weeks. The race is in 16. Game on.

My intention with this blog is to journal about my experience thru all this. I'm not sure how it'll go...what tone it will take...or how I'll come across thru all this...but I thought I may want to look back on my progress when I'm done to prove how far I came...or perhaps I'll need the motivation in the meantime. Either way, like any other journey, it begins with the first step...which for me begins on January 4, 2010 on a treadmill in my basement....