…said a bumper sticker on a truck I passed while driving to pick up my race packet this morning. Wonder if he was on his way to the same place?

The goody bag is full of all sorts of things a writer and lover of office supplies (race is sponsored by 3M) can put to good use: star-shaped Post-Its, butterfly-shaped Post-Its, Post-Its with grids on them for the serious Post-It note-writer. Tape, bandages, earplugs, power drinks and bars, the works. And, of course, a souvenir T-shirt!

(If you’re just tuning in, I am running a half-marathon this weekend—which happens to be my first organized race ever—and I am bouncing off the walls.)

According to the date on the confirmation e-mail from way back when I registered, I signed up in August when I first started running. Proud that I stuck with the plan and ran through all those months? Yes. Forgotten everyone who mumbled and grumbled and said “yeah, right”? No way. Eat yer words, people!

A writer friend asked the other day how I got started. Basically, I got sick of the treadmill. I’d been working out on it for years, and when I couldn’t stomach staring at the wall for another hour, I decided to go outside (it helped that around this same time, my kids started school so I had time to do this). While walking around the block, I felt like I was going too slowly and had this weird urge to go faster, to run. So I did, and loved it so much that I came home, researched the sport of running online, found a half-marathon in my city and an accompanying training program, and started following it.

Yes, really, I signed up and paid for a 13.1-mile event when I hadn’t even run a mile yet.  But it’s amazing what you can build up to if you stick with it. I’ve completed 10-, 11-, and 12-mile runs without walking a step. And double-digit runs hurt. Seriously. I came home one day, after the 11 or 12, and I was so worn out that my skin hurt. Because I’m strange, I love that feeling—that putting soap on in the shower is painful because I pushed myself so hard. That’s how I want to feel on Sunday! (Uh…when I’m finished, that is. Hurting two miles in is not going to be very inspirational.)

The race goal is to finish, screw the time (I run a decent average pace but certainly nothing competitive), and not walk any of it save the water stops where I’ll have to slow down to drink. If I am successful, there should be a picture of me and my medal on here in a couple of days. If not…well, that isn’t an option.

Training up to this point has consisted of running laps around my neighborhood. Running through the city with thousands of other people will be a different kind of experience, for sure. Bring it!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 9:47 am and is filed under Avery's Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.