I ran! A long way!

(I should have made a New Year's resolution about more frequent blog updates--but I knew I wouldn't comply with that!  So I'm posting all about the activities of the last 2 months this week.)

I've never been a runner.  I may have run a mile at some point in elementary school--but if I did, I don't remember it.  Prior to February 2010, I hated running--my favorite form of exercise was aerobics or walking on the treadmill (fast, at an incline--but still walking).

John has been a runner since before I met him.  Before we had kids, he ran several miles a week.  (As an aside, I think it is significant to point out that working 80-120 hours/week in residency did not interfere with his working out--but 2 small children certainly did!)

During our second year of marriage, he decided to commit to doing a long distance race and ran the Walt Disney World half-marathon.  I watched as a spectator and had a fantastic time--and was so inspired that I went straight to the gym the next week resolving to become a runner.  That resolve lasted about 2 minutes, until I realized running was still hard and I was still not good at it.  The following year, when I was 5 months pregnant with Will, I watched him run the WDW Marathon (the day after he ran the half-marathon, to complete the Goofy Challenge).  I was a little motivated to run again, but hey--I was pregnant and it just seemed wiser to stick to the couch.  The next year (2007 if you're keeping track), an 8-month-old Will and I watched John run the WDW Marathon again.

This past year when John was facing the prospect of surgery and chemotherapy, he mentioned that he thought he would like a goal to keep him working out during the treatment--specifically he was considering signing up for the WDW Marathon again.  I thought that didn't sound wise, so suggested that maybe we should both sign up for the half-marathon (I figured that would be easily manageable for John--he's been able to run 8-9 miles as long as I've known him--and I think he was so shocked that I was willing to try that he agreed).

I downloaded the Couch-to-5K app to my iPhone and hit the treadmill at the gym.  I did the first 3 weeks, but hit a snag when John had his first surgery.  I started over again a few weeks later in April and set my sights on the Watermelon 5K in Winter Park as my first race.

And I did it--my first 5K!  

To be fair, I didn't do it the way I originally planned.  I finished the C25K program to prove to myself that I could run 30 minutes without stopping, but I realized I really, really missed the walk breaks.  After I got to the point I could run 3 miles, I started running with some girls from work who introduced me to the Jeff Galloway run-walk method (run 3-5 minutes, walk 1 minute), which made me much happier.

Spurred on by the euphoria of finishing the 5K, I registered for the WDW Half-Marathon.  At that point, John was at the mid-point of his chemo and we both realized it was taking a bigger toll on his endurance than we'd anticipated.  Luckily, Missy and Laurie were happy to join me and signed up for the race.  I continued doing short runs twice during the week and a longer run on Saturday, usually with the girls from work.

In September, I ran my first 10K (Halifax Hospice 10K in Port Orange).  I did well (for me), but developed my first significant running injury over the next few weeks.  Due to pretty bad knee pain, I didn't do much running during October and became really discouraged and scared I wouldn't be ready for the race in January.  John gave me frequent pep talks, IT band massages, and humored me by KT-taping my knee as instructed in a YouTube video.  I don't know which of those three things worked, but the knee pain finally got better and I was back to training.

Marathon Weekend finally rolled around and we headed to Orlando for the festivities.  Missy and Laurie flew in the day before the race.  Missy was battling a high fever (the flu, we think), I was recovering from a sinus infection, and Laurie was recovering from frequent travelling and an Achilles injury that reduced her actual training time to about 6 weeks.  So we were definitely a little gimpy!

Will and Anna ran in the kids' races on Friday.  Anna didn't do much walking--she was shy at first and just moseyed toward the finish line.

Will started well, but his enthusiasm flagged around the halfway point (100m).  I think John had to do some pretty serious cheerleading to get him to the finish line.

(That's Will in the orange sweatshirt.)

The kids with their medals:

Our race went well (barring a fit thrown by me when we were running late and unable to exit the hotel parking lot at 4:30 am--I owe an apology to some poor night shift operator at the Swan and Dolphin).  Every minute (almost) was fun and it was over quickly.  I didn't take my camera with me, so have just a few camera phone pics:

Missy and Laurie before the race...

...and 13.1 miles later!

I have to admit I was super proud of myself.  So many times I'd watched people running the Disney race and wished I was one of them--and on January 8, 2011, I was!  I owe a big thank you to Missy and Laurie for running with me (and distracting me so that it went by quickly)--and a big, big thanks to John for watching the kids while I went for long runs on Saturdays, and for being really encouraging during the months I was struggling with my knee--I think I would have bagged the whole thing if not for his help.  (Well...his help and the knowledge that Missy and Laurie had nonrefundable race registration and plane tickets!)

So what's next?  John is back to running about 3 miles and so we're trying to figure out a half-marathon that we can run together.  Believe it or not, I think I would like to try the marathon distance once and hope John and I can do a marathon together.  I haven't figured the logistics of training for that distance with 2 small children, though. :-)