Let’s make this clear – I hate running. I hate it. The only thing I’d like to do with a treadmill is to take a chainsaw to it. I even hate people who run, those skinny people with the nice legs who wake up early in the morning and run, all smug-like and healthy and fit, round their neighbourhood.
Then one day, I posted a question on my FB page asking my followers for suggestions on something new and exciting I should try out. Among the many (more reasonable and fun) suggestions, one friend posted that I should run a marathon. Scoff. I almost rang him up just to shout at him down the phone.
Then I thought, Hang on…. why not?
Okay, not quite run a marathon, but… run. I decided, since I’m all into this starting life anew and trying new things, that I would challenge myself not only to train myself to run but, more horrifyingly, to like it.
But c’mon, let’s not be stupid. I can’t run for more than 20 seconds without feeling like collapsing from a cardiac arrest. I gasp, and stutter, and heave like I’m about to die. I. Can’t. Breathe. Help.
So I decided to be clever and moderate about this. All things in moderation, no? I learnt that valuable lesson in recent times, with the 16 hour working days, no rest, no health, bad eating habits thing. I found this cute little running guide online and off I went!
I started about 2 – 3 weeks ago on the ultra lame, super slow, almost-physically-retarded level of walking for 4 minutes + jogging for 1 minute (repeat 5 more times). This means that after 30 minutes on the treadmill, I would have run for 6 minutes – not half bad! This was doable, although it did also feel like near death many times through that half hour.
I’m making my way through the programme, up to 3 minutes of walking + 3 minutes of running, repeated 5 times. That’s now 15 mins running each half hour. I don’t feel half as exhausted anymore and, more shockingly, I’m even starting to enjoy it. I’m liking the gradual increase of running and getting more and more used to it – or even (even!) finding that it’s getting easy.
I’ve got a loooooong way to go, but heck, I’ve gone a far longer way than I ever have in this terribly intimidating, exhausting world of running. There’s a little tip on the website that reminds us that if I do this running thing 4 times this week, at this stage I’m at, I would clock in a total of an hour of running this week. I know that would be nothing to a seasoned runner, who probably clocks double that a day, but I find it endlessly amusing and great. A whole hour! I’m very proud of myself 
Onwards, onwards!
