Running

Oh, how I hated running in high school.  Felt like I was going to die every time: the burning ache in my thighs, the violent breath being expelled from my lungs.  I was convinced that my body was not in any way intended to run.  Then I got to college and learned from my volleyball coach that running really is the best way to get in aerobic shape and make it through those plays that seem as though they will never end.  So I forced myself to become friendly with the idea of running.  I came to a point where I was running of my own volition and enjoying it to some degree.  I was, however, never drawn to great distances or compelled to run for great periods of time.  Twenty minutes or 2 miles was a good bout of running for me.  Then a strange thing happened last year, about a year ago in fact.  A group of women from my program were signing up for the Nike Women's Half (or in some cases, full) marathon.  And I was interested in the idea.  But too scared at the time to actually pursue the idea of running more than three miles.  Enter about 8 months later, and I'm living next to a lake that happens to be the perfect size to run around and the idea from the prior year is still ruminating.  I began playing with the idea of making it all the way around the lake (~3.5 miles).  This January I forced myself to actually run the full length around the lake.  It has felt like such a big accomplishment and it continues to build on itself because at some point, it started getting easier!  It culminated this Saturday when I went on the best run of my life so far.  It felt easy, good that my body was in constant motion.  I also began the journey past the one-lap mark with my new goal to make it twice around the lake.  All this is contributing to my now real goal of running a half marathon.  I'm going to shoot for the Nike Women's marathon in October of this year.  It supports a good cause (leukemia and lymphoma society) and they give you a Tiffany's necklace at the end.  Yes, a Tiffany's necklace with adorable little runners.  If that's not good added incentive I don't know what is.