My First 10K

Click on image to see movie.

For some reason this vlog entry went online immediately. Wow. That has never happened to me before.

Not only was this run really exciting for me, but Josh has peaked my interest in geocaching. It's pretty much EXACTLY what I like to do...scavenger/treasure hunts!

So now I want to save up and get a GPS.

If you're interested in doing what I've been doing - basically going from 0 to 10K in 10 weeks, download this clinic (it's a one-page pdf):

http://www.vancouverisland.com/TC10K/2005/TrainingWalkRun.pdf

The first few weeks were the hardest but as you see yourself improve it becomes worth it.

A bit of background:

About the running thing.
I was the kid who could only run a few feet before my chest hurt, my throat filled with mucus and I had to walk the rest of the way. Turned out I had asthma which was mostly sports induced.
Always the last to finish any sort of distance running. Always shying away from anything that involved running because I knew I couldn't do it.
Then I got hit by a car at 12 and broke 15 bones in my hands and left leg combined. I never really recovered from that and I think that if I had been sporty prior to the accident, I could have used sports to recover. Instead I gained weight, became even more of a bookworm/computer nerd and just accepted that I could never jump, run or do anything which necessitated agility.
The punk/queer/high school world didn't require any athletic ability, nor did living in montreal for 3 years. The first year I lived in montreal was my fittest - i biked everywhere - but once I moved to the plateau and got into the simpsons it was couch potato/chain smoking history.
In Victoria i could have joined the world of the fitness-prone but somehow my big old car and my jobs with kids kept me strapped into a commuting mentality - to the point that I even drove to the corner store! Sometimes I am ashamed of how much I drove when I could have biked or walked in that town.
My last year in Victoria I joined a recreational softball team, i learned a bit more about a game I'd always loved if not fully understood strategically. In the end I won "Most Improved Player" and that was true - I had learned how to improve. How to love feeling like I was building some skill in a sport.
Since moving to Toronto, I have flirted with working out, biking around, generally trying to take advantage of the fact that my body learns quickly. But I never really pushed anything cardio or something high-impact like running. Until I quit my restaurant job. For two and a half years I was in a chain-smoking, drinking every night fog and when I finally pushed out, I pushed out big time.
See, I never thought that I would live to be 30. Seriously. Not because there was any hint of something that would happen, but just because I couldn't picture the future with me in it. My mom says that a lot of kids who experience childhood trauma have this same experience. So with 30 appraching I think I started to see that there was something bigger than me. That whole "your body is a temple" stuff was really starting to make sense.
So I quit my job, quit smoking, started biking every morning at the gym across the street that costs 10$ a year to join, and I worked my heart and my lungs. The benefits were astounding - everything was clearer, I felt clean and stong, sex was better and life felt worth living. Working out was addictive and I couldn't believe I hadn't done this sooner.
I got a dog last summer and that also brought me into more walking and getting outside.
When I started this running clinic eleven weeks ago I did it for a lot of reasons. I wanted to be able to run - I have always dreamed about running most likely because it was something I could never do. My moms run and I thought it could be a nice family thing for us to have. It's good excercise for my dog, in less time than walking. I saw a role-model of mine running in HIgh Park one day and I thought "If I learn to run, I can run with her!". I wanted to lose some weight and feel fitter. Also I like to have goals - so I thought, I will learn to run and I will do the Lois Lane Run that happens at Michigan every summer.
There are many other reasons, but this is the start.
So anyway. That's the background to where I am today. I completed my first 10K organized race and I signed up for the Toronto Marathon's Half Marathong (21K) for October 16th.
gotta go to work now.