A new challenge

Well, I may have lost my mind, but after spending the weekend thinking about it, I have decided to run the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler with my friend Becky in April. Our goal is to run 10 miles in less than one hour and 50 minutes. I think it is just the thing I need to motivate me and make me push myself again. I’ve just been coasting along, not getting to the next level of fitness, and I’m getting tired of it. If I’m going to do this though, I want to do it right, and not humiliate myself. So, the training begins. I’ve got to build stamina and get faster before I can even start to tackle long runs. And then there’s the matter of hills. I really struggle on hills, and the only way to not struggle is to keep running them until they aren’t so hard any more. Good times.

The race is at the beginning of April, so I’ve got roughly four and a half months. I think that’s enough time. I’m not a great runner, but I’m not a complete disaster. And running 10 miles is something I can be really proud of, as well. If I can run the race I want to run – hell, being able to run 10 miles at all – but really, more running 10 miles the way I want to run 10 miles will mean I’ve finally hit the level of fitness that I want to have.

I’m sure a real serious runner, the kind who covers more ground in one training session than I do in a week, might snicker a bit at that, but I don’t care. This is what I want to achieve. I have friends who have run marathons, and I was proud of them and impressed by them. I don’t really have any interest in doing it myself though. Maybe a half marathon, if I survive the 10 miler, but maybe not. A year and a half ago, I hadn’t run since middle school, and I only ran then because they made me, either through PE or when we were playing field hockey or lacrosse and I had to run up and down the field. By the way, if I sound like a lousy runner, you should have seen me play lacrosse. Wow, did I suck at that.

But I digress. 10 miles. April. Stamina, speed and hills. I can do this. I will do this.