I suppose if you were looking for a decision I made that was the first step on a path to prioritizing health, it was the decision to start running. I never enjoyed running. In fact, I downright hated it. About 3 years ago, I tried to start running using Couch to 5k but gave up around week 3.
Then, in April, I had a conversation with my friend Lauren and she told me that she and her husband Matt had recently completed the program. She told me she felt full of energy, and that she was planning to go out jogging at the con where the conversation was taking place. I knew they had been on a health kick from Matt's vlog, 34 Percent (alluding to the percentage of his peak body weight he was trying to lose) where he talked about eating more real food and turning his life around with healthy choices. And thanks to this conversation, I decided to give jogging another try.
And I did Couch to 5k, start to finish. Using an app called "RunDouble" I got off my butt every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday morning to jog before I started my day. I ran my last day of the 9 week program (30 consecutive minutes of running) while visiting Ashland with family for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. But then something happened... Intending to keep up my jogging regimen while on vacation come hell or somewhat literal high water, I went for a jog through Ashland in the rain. About a minute into my jog, I slipped, skidded on the ground, landed in the mud, and scraped my elbow badly enough that I still have a scar people ask about over 2 months later.
And then I lost my mojo. I got sick. I didn't jog for a whole week. When I did, it was for 20 minutes, not 30, and I had to work my way back up to the full jog. I sporadically skipped jogs. A bellyache was an excuse, as was the decreasing outdoor temperature. As I got into eating paleo and doing all the other fun fitness things I've written and will write about, I realized jogging was the thing I enjoyed least.
But for some reason I don't understand - maybe to keep motivating myself, or maybe because it was only $20 - I signed up for a blacklight run 5k. That had been the goal all along, right? That's why the program is called "couch to 5k."
As this week progressed, I became whiny about the upcoming race. I didn't like running. It was the only thing I was doing that wasn't fun. Maybe after the race I'd stop.
But here's the thing - while jogging by myself has lost its fun quotient for me, jogging in a group of people is a whole different story.
When I arrived at the race, I found myself walking behind a group of people. I started chatting with them, and they quickly made me feel included in their group. We lined up and shivered with anticipation... and also with cold. :p
The jog started, but slowly. There were a TON of people there, and they all kind of bottlenecked. Also, it was a pretty casual event, so there were young children, older people... I even saw someone in a wheelchair. I love the inclusiveness concept, but I didn't train all that time to walk behind slow people - I wanted to RUN! So I headed off with some people from the group I had found, and we dodged and weaved around the walking contingent. Sometimes this meant jogging next to the roped off course rather than within it, but I was dedicated to staying at a jogging pace rather than a walking one.
The gimmick of this particular 5k was that they splash blacklight reflecting powder on you at a few stops. If you're familiar with a Color Run, it's like that except at night and with powder that glows under blacklights. At the first glow powder station (pink), I kind of jogged through hoping some of the powder would just naturally make its way onto me - but alas, not much.
At the next station (orange), I was determined to get more powder, so I walked right up to one of the volunteers (employees?) who was spraying people with powder. I got a splash of powder right to the t-shirt - that's more like it! - and then right to the face. There was powder in my eyes, powder in my nose, powder in my mouth... blech! I had to stop while I spluttered and ineffectively rubbed my eyes with my powder-covered hands. Here's a photo that might give you some idea of how much powder was on my face:
At the last station (green, or maybe blue), I found a happy medium. I ran right up to the people splashing powder, but I made a tunnel with my hands around my face. That worked quite well.
I had lost my jogging buddies when I stopped for water at the halfway point, but I found them again after triumphantly crossing the finish line. After meeting up, we went to a giant dance party where we threw packets of powder at ourselves and each other and danced to top 40 songs.
Party photos!
So the party was fun, and the company was fun... but the most unexpected thing was that RUNNING was fun! Furthermore, I didn't feel exhausted at the end of the 5k. By contrast, I probably could have kept running. Towards the end of the race, I overheard someone cynically comment, "I thought this was supposed to be a 5k... more like a 25k!" and I thought to myself, "I'm not even tired!" What a revelation for someone who could barely run for 60 seconds back when I started in April!
I guess the takeaway here is that maybe I won't stop running. In fact, maybe I'll train for a 10k. When I get out to LA, I have some friends who are really big on running (though maybe too big into it - the two people who spring to mind have both done marathons) and maybe we'll do some races together. I think that would be fun.
Running... fun... What a different mindset than I had a few days ago!
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