Born to Run

In some ways, I’ve been running my whole life.

Yep, that’s me in that baby jogger circa mid-1980s. I grew up in a very athletic family. My parents even met one another on their corporate track team. My brother was also a very accomplished high school athlete. I spent a lot of time at various road races and track meets. Sometimes it feels like I was born knowing that 5K is 3.1 miles. However, I enjoyed music and reading to sports and performing in musicals to being on an athletic team.

When I met Joe, my husband, I was impressed at his ability to balance medical school and still exercise regularly. With his influence, I started hitting the campus gym for some weight-lifting and the elliptical. Like many brides-to-be, when we got engaged, I wanted to lose a few pounds. Through exercise and counting calories on Sparkpeople, I lost 20 lbs in about a year.

 

While I had gone through spurts of running, it never lasted because I always felt miserable doing it. Then last year I decided I wanted more of a challenge, plus I wanted to enjoy the wonderful parks and trails we have in Nashville, so I started Couch to 5K and convinced Joe to do it with me. Building up to running slowly made all of the difference in the world, and we completed the program in just enough time to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather.

Since starting Couch to 5K, the longest I’ve gone without running is a week. Even though I had run 5Ks before, my first 5K after C25K was the fastest one I’ve ever run. Now, with a couple of half marathons and other races under my belt, I’m ready to start focusing a little bit more on speed and strength.

How long have you been running for?