Why I Don’t Totally Hate Running Anymore

Anyone who knows me knows that I do. Not. Run. I hate running, passionately. It’s uncomfortable, I can’t breathe right, I am sore afterwards, I get all red, I sweat profusely, and I can think of about 1000 things I would rather do than to go running. When I was in Jr. High and we had to run the mile, I was like “nope, I am just going to walk this, I am not even going to try to run it”. I was embarrassed that I couldn’t really run, never had good endurance, and oh did I mention that my legs are about 2ft long? When I walk with my husband I have to take 2 strides for every 1 of his. It’s a chore folks.

  I thought that you had to be athletic to run. We can all safely assume that athletic is not a word I would ever apply to myself and I would discourage myself before I even got started. Then, when I would get the occasional whim to go for a run, I would make it about a 50 yards basically sprinting and then just want to go home and cry because I was so out of shape. I had no clue what I was doing (still really don’t). And on top of all of this – many of my closest friends are runners. Legit marathon runners yo. I thought that I should just content myself being the cute, chubby girl with the nice rack. (Hey – work with what ya got right?) But ya know, it is a little hard to look at yourself in pictures with beautiful, in shape, healthy girls when you are the chubby one (nice rack or not).

 Then, these stupid running events started to turn into social events too. I kept getting invited. Finally, I said yes – I will run the freaking 5K. I think that a good portion of the reason I agreed to this is because they are going to give me chocolate at the end.

Well, in an order to not sorely embarrass myself like I did on the Turkey Trot 2 years ago (my ridiculously health mother-in-law finished in about half the time it took me… yeah.) I decided I should actually train to run this thing. I started in September, so I am definitely still a newbie to this whole running business and much of it is fueled by the desire to not be embarrassed. I decided to set realistic goals for myself and followed a 5K training plan. I have been running 3-4 times a week for the last 7 weeks and my progress has been slow and arduous, but incredibly rewarding. I jog, I walk, I run to get it done, but I finish. Yesterday I ran 3 miles. Today I am sore, but definitely feel a sense of accomplishment.

One thing that has helped to motivate me (besides health and fear of humiliating myself) is actually a new ap I downloaded, Zombies, Run!

It is a fun ap that puts you into a storyline about the zombie apocalypse. You are a “runner” for a small township and they send you out on missions to collect information and supplies. They use your own music in between radio transmissions to you and sometimes, zombies chase you. When they chase you, you have to speed up for 30-60 seconds to outrun them or else you lose your supplies. The supplies are important too because they help you build up your township. This ap has actually made running fun for me. I am totally invested in the story line and characters now too. I don’t know what I am going to do when I run out of missions!

Hopefully by then this running thing will be more of a habit and I won’t have to rely on wanting to know what happens in the story to get my butt off the couch! Wish me luck guys – that 5k is Sunday!