Running

At the beginning of July I started walking for exercise. About a week into walking for exercise I saw some of my Kansas City friends posting about a 5k run they did called the Color Run (www.thecolorrun.com).

I thought is looked like fun and I was thinking that having something to work towards would be good for me. I think doing a race of some sort has also been on my secret (as in it's so secret I won't even admit it to myself) bucket list. I have started walking several times and then stopped for one lame excuse or another and have taken months to years 'off'. I posted a link to the Color Run on Facebook and asked if anyone wanted to do the run with me in Memphis (the closest run since the KC run had already happened). My friend and Girl Scout co-leader, Haley, said she would do it with me. We tried to recruit three of our other mutual friends. One isn't able to make it because it is her son's birthday weekend and another isn't going because it is her anniversary month and they are planning a Disney trip for their family. Our friend, Korienne, is going with us however. Korienne and Haley have been friends since college and Korienne and I met three years ago when she became my assistant principal. I really like Korienne so I am glad she is going with us. However, Korienne is a runner so she is training very little and doing awesome. Haley and I haven't run since middle school when they made us.  I have been walking with some running thrown in almost every day since that first week in July. That is really good for me. I have been adding more and more running each time.

I am able to run/walk a 5k in about 50 minutes. When I first started in July I thought it would be a year at least before I could get down to 50 minutes. Now I am trying to get down to 45 minutes. A 45 minute 5k is pretty much running the entire time (for me at least).

Haley found a race for Labor Day that she wanted us to participate in. It is called CASA which is an organization that connects people with children who need support as they go through the court system as they are living in foster homes, etc. Haley signed up and I decided to do it with her. Our friend who couldn't make it to Memphis for the color run, Emily---son's birthday weekend, is going to run too. Haley just texted me that she went out with Emily tonight and lost Emily after about a minute because Emily is speedy and finished her 3 miles in 32 minutes. Yikes! I am by far the slowest of everyone I've mentioned so far. I want everyone to run their own race and not wait for me. I'll just be happy (and proud) to finish no matter what my time is. I can hardly believe I went from being a non-runner to having 2 races on the horizon. Double yikes!!