The Beginning

I am not a runner.  I have never run a mile without stopping.  I've tried to run before.  Once I made it all the way through the first day of the Couch Potato to 5K program.  When I heard that several of my friends are training for a half marathon, my reaction was good for them.  There was an open invitation to me, but I thought the possibility was laughable at best.  Yesterday, my friend asked me again if I would like to train with them.  I laughed.  Then I thought, Maybe I will do it.  It couldn't be that hard.  I decided to think about it.  When we got to our small group dinner about 30 minutes later, there were four different types of bread and potato soup for dinner.  I decided the carbo-loading was a sign.

So, I'm training for a half marathon.  Today I took the only sensible course of action and went to the local running store.  I bought some super cute shoes.  I also picked up some compression sleeves (like socks without the foot part).  I thought as long as I am going to be ridiculous, I might as well look the part too.

I wanted to get the pink ones, but they only had black in my size.  These are mostly because I have circulation issues in my right leg (also known as my fat leg) due to valve damage caused by a blood clot several years ago.  This leg tends to cramp more, so I thought I would try this to see if it will help.

Day 1 of Training/torture:

With my new shoes and sleeves, I went to the Rose Bowl to walk/run the track.  I was using an app called Run Keeper, which was way too good at telling me how painfully slow I was going.  Other indications of my snail's pace were how many people passed me.  Here is a partial list of people who passed me (sometimes twice):

• obviously serious runners
• woman pushing newborn in stroller
• older man with a tiny dog
• woman pushing newborn twins in stroller
• four year old on a bike

I was alternating walking and running, with more walking than running.  I did the three miles averaging 15 minutes per mile.  One of the things that helped me go faster for a while was a creepy old man on the golf course.  After he started yelling things at me, I decided the faster I went, the faster I would get away from him.  This gets at my basic philosophy of running--it's easier to do if something is chasing you.  If anyone has a bear that I could borrow to train with, let me know.

Stats:

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 47:16 

Average Pace: 15.21 minutes/mile

Average Speed: 3.91 mph