embracing my inner tortoise

I mentioned a couple of months ago, that I’ve taken up running. I started off with the RFR C25K program but mid way I got a bit off track. I was suffering with shin splints and struggling with what time of day was best for me to run and then I was distracted by comments from other runners in the same program posting their daily distances. I hadn’t paid any attention to my distance – I was focused on moving for the required amount of time every training session. How would I get back on track? In the end, on the advice of a runner friend, I tried running with a group. My local running store has group runs so I took myself off there for a group run. What can I say? I nearly went home so many times in the first few minutes of arriving at the run location. The marathon group was running 32K that day, the half marathon group 18K. There wasn’t a slow 2K or 4K option. In the end, I joined the Learn to Run people who were near the end of their session so were running 10 minutes and walking 1. We left together and after a couple of minutes they were easily outpacing me. I was about to say,”don’t wait for me” when the group leader split from the rest of the group and stayed with me. The others ran ahead and ran 5K. With the help of the group leader who stayed with me the entire time, I ran and walked almost 4K. And the following week I signed up for a running clinic at the store. We’ve been running 3 times a week – this week we were up to running for 5 minutes, walking for 1, repeated 4 times. We’ve had sessions on running gear, shoes, biomechanics, nutrition and safety. We always run together after the class and have another 2 chances a week to run with the group. The timing has never worked for me for one of the runs so I’ve always had one solo run a week. But in the past couple of weeks I’ve learned a few things about myself. While one of my motivations for joining the clinic was to have a group to push me, there is part of me that resents being pushed. I’m always the slowest in our group runs. Always at the back of the pack and I’ve struggled with that. But I’m still running. I still go every week. Some of the other slower runners have dropped out but I’m still there. My fellow runners and group leaders are very encouraging but it is discouraging to always be the slowest. But I need to embrace that. I’m a slow runner. I represent the end of the loop, for the group when they loop back and get to me they get to turn around and go forward again. I’ve been running in the rain and the cold and that is what matters, not how fast I go or how far I go. I’m still running. And as one of my fellow runners said a few weeks ago “you are faster than all the people on their couches.”

becoming a runner

It feels so presumptuous to even write that. But that is what I am doing. Or trying to do. I recently joined this online group. I love the name. In school I was that girl, the last one picked for teams usually, who panted her way around, trailing everyone else badly, with my short legs and chubby frame. And at the end of gym class, I always had a glow-in-the-dark red face. Always. I managed in high school, to be one of 8 girls to letter in sports (it is still shocking to me) by playing on the school's field hockey team, playing intramural volleyball and basketball, managing the school's girl's basketball team and competing in track and field - my disciplines were shotput and discus throwing although my coach tried to convince me to be a long distance runner. I hated running in school and for most of my life. I never felt fit enough, never felt natural and never felt the high that others talk about. When I was in my twenties a friend and I trained for and then ran a 10K race and thanks to my slow pace, we came in last. I gave it up. A knee injury (partial acl tear) sustained playing tennis made me even more reticent when it came to sports. And recently, my only activity has been the occasional walk. My doctor wants me to be more active and I want to be more active. I want to be able to run around with our boy, play soccer in the park with him. So when the ads for this year's CIBC Run for the Cure started, it was already percolating in my head that I could/should do something about it this year. As in, get out there and do it. Raise money and run in mum's memory. And then Dara posted about the Red Faced Runners and posted their version of the C25K program (Couch to 5K). So I joined the group and signed up for the 5K, bought running shoes and socks and started the program. I started slowly - it took me 2 weeks to do the first week's schedule. Mainly as I struggled with how to fit in training into my schedule. I've run in the afternoon, with my boy playing on a nearby playground and I don't like running late in the day. So far what works for me in early morning. During the work week this means hauling myself out of bed at 5AM so I can do the run, shower, do morning prep routine and the morning commute to be at my desk by 7. The mornings are getting darker but so far the weather has been fantastic so I'm hoping that by the time the rain starts, it will be habit enough so I will still have the umph to go. This morning I did the last workout of Week 4 - a repeat of Thursday's run as I didn't complete it on Thursday and I managed the whole thing this morning. So I'm surprising myself. So maybe at the end of next week, I will be able to run the 22 minutes. I can. I will. And after the 5K, I'm hoping to continue with running - 20 minutes 3 times a week so I can say, I'm a runner.