I was never, ever, ever ever EVER a runner. There was a period of brief physical fitness in high school where I could walk fairly quickly, but never run. My dad has been a die-hard runner since before I was born, logging at least 20 miles every single week for over twenty years. He always tells the story: "When your mom & I were dual-income, no kids, living in California, we had a lot of good friends, a lot of good food, and a lot of good beer. One day, I looked down at the scale and realized 'I'm going to have to either give up beer or start running,' and I've been running ever since." My younger brother (about to graduate high school) is one of those kids who never sits still and has run cross-country throughout his whole high school career, actually making it onto the varsity team as a sophomore. My mom has never been a dedicated runner, but when she was losing her weight (she's also a Lifetime member, as I'm sure I've mentioned before), she begrudgingly picked it up and ran a half-marathon in Tulsa when I was in high school. (Numerous broken toes and other foot injuries later, she has since retired from the sport.)
In the fall/winter of 2010 (my junior year of college), I got an email from UNL announcing that registration for the marathon training class had opened. I remember thinking to myself, "Hey, I could...BAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA NOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE." I gave it maybe a half-millisecond chance before completely rebuffing it.
Wellllll, in the fall of 2011 (just a few short--but very long--months ago!) I was already spending a good bit of time at the Rec and saw a sign advertising the marathon training class. This time around, I signed up for it even before the email went out announcing the class to the student population.
I cannot say enough good things about that class. It was fun, motivating, informative, inspiring...I would NOT have been able to run the half without the guidance I received in the class.
Anyway, to wrap it up, I went from being ecstatic that I could run one mile straight (without stopping to walk) in November or so, to running the first five miles of the half-marathon, the last two miles, and a whole lot more in between, finally finishing at 2:27.
What's next? I'm looking at another half in South Dakota, on June 3rd. Anyone wanna join me? It's almost all downhill! =D
-Tory
That's really awesome, Tory! It's pretty exciting to accomplish something you never thought you could. I'm signed up for the Omaha half marathon in September. My original plan was to walk it, but I think now that I will walk/run.
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