Three Christmases ago, my little brother gave me a slightly unorthodox "gift" that has totally disrupted my life ever since. His gift was participation in a relay race with him and our older brother. Kenny would be the swimmer, Kiley would be the biker, and I would be the runner. Maybe you didn't catch that. I would be the runner. Me. Kimberly. I don't know if you've met me, but I am anything but athletic. Never have been. Have the coordination of an emu.
"It's only 5 miles, Kimberly. You can do that, piece of cake."
So the week after Christmas, I set out to begin my training. I "ran" about .25 miles and decided 5 miles is not even close to a piece of cake. I forced myself to finish walking fast through the remainder of one mile and then went to Burger King for french toast sticks.
Lucky for me, I have an amazing 'big brother' who didn't want to see me fail at my Christmas gift, so Kiley met me 3 times a week at the track and we ran (Kiley: "I think I'd probably call this jogging, as opposed to actual running.") 5 minutes, walked for 1, etc. for 5 miles. Of course it got a little (2%?) easier over time but I wasn't falling in love with running by any means.
Enter 10.2 million stress fractures in my ankle. Enter the cancellation of the triathlon. I'm off the hook, right!? Yay! I've been injured and there's no longer an event to train for! My training career is exit stage left!
Not so fast, Berly. I've caught the bug. I think I actually want to become a runner. I really want to love this sport. I do, I do! I've always really admired and secretly been jealous of people that run. I want to be that! So I sign up for a 5k with Kiley. And even crazier, I join a Ragnar Wasatch Back 24-hour Relay team. What? Run 3 legs of 4.5 miles each in a 24 hour period with no sleep? Sounds fantastic. I'd love ta.
Two years later, I'm still plugging away, running (yeah, Kiley, I dare to call it that) 3 times a week. I can now run 4 miles without that walking break that I thought I would never be able to live without and even though I'm constantly discounting my low mileage out loud (I've never run a marathon, for the love of Pete ), I am pretty freaking proud of myself.
Just did another 5k with Kiley and am getting amped up for another go at the Ragnar Wasatch Back 24-hour Relay, and even though I've asked you to remind me to stop running after Ragnar, I probably won't. I'm going to be cool with not ever running an insane marathon, but will hopefully convince myself that I AM A RUNNER!
3 comments:
You are my hero. I did the running thing when I was much younger. Can't imagine doing it now. You go girl! Run a few for me too.
You ARE a runner!
Good Job running the Wasatch Back! It's a trip isn't it? Too bad running is so addictive. I wish they would have told us that before we started.
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