Monday, November 09, 2009

Pavement?  Meet my Face.  Glad we’re friends now.

So I’ve been jogging lately.  It’s a good form of exercise, a good way to relieve stress, and a good way to push myself into doing something I never thought I was capable of.

See, I’m not a runner.  Actually, I think it’s safe to say that I’m not an ATHLETE.  I can’t think of a single sport in high school P.E. that I remotely excelled in.  Swimming, maybe, but that’s because most of the girls in my class were pretty bad swimmers.

But I’ve always hated running.  In high school, we had to run a mile each week during P.E. It took everything I had to make it around that 1/4-mile track ONE time.  I usually felt that my lungs were going to give out on me afterward, despite the fact that I had walked about 3/4 of the mile.  My personal best time was 12+ minutes, and I remember being pretty near death after that one.

The other thing that has always prevented me from running is the fact that I have bunions, so I can’t use my big toes too much or else it’s hard to walk the next day.

Today, I ran a mile.  An entire one.  Without stopping, even once.  My time was somewhere around 11 minutes, according to the clock on my iPhone.

And when I finished that mile, I continued to run 2 more miles, walking only about 15% of the time.

Now, I know an 11+ minute mile isn’t anything spectacular.  This guy I know just ran a 5K in under half an hour, while pushing 2 kids in a stroller.  But I couldn’t help thinking how at almost 30 years old, and 20 pounds heavier, I’m apparently in better shape (muscle-wise, anyway) than I was in high school.

And how even at this stage in life, I can push myself to accomplish something that I used to believe I would never be capable of.

As always, my moment of glory passed quickly.  Shortly into mile #2, I tripped over a ridge in the sidewalk and totally ATE IT on the pavement.  As in, belly flop onto the ground - my knees never got the chance to catch me.  My hands, thigh and lifeline iPhone paid the price.  As did my pride.

I never did that in high school either.  I guess some things do get worse with age.