First Run!

So I've been "running" a few miles on the elliptical for the past week due to the horrendous heat that has settled over the DC area but today the heat dropped down to a cool 90 degrees and I figured it would be the day I would move the running outside.

My first problem was that my elliptical running didn't exactly translate to my outdoor running. I'm sure the elliptical is great cardio and has improved my "heart health" (I think I got that term from the back of a cereal box) but that is about it.  I have to admit though, I am awesome at the elliptical. If I was training for an elliptical half-marathon I would be ready in less than a month. I can keep up a steady 5mph pace for an hour with no problem and I watch old Project Runway episodes on the TV and enjoy my time alone. Plus the climate control in the basement is awesome. Somehow, I didn't count on moving my runs outside to be a big deal. I guess you could say I was in for a little bit of a surprise.

I started out around 8am with a two mile course planned. For extra laughs I decided to bring the dog with me. I figured she could use the exercise as well and I wouldn't be going very fast. Plus, we were keeping to pretty flat terrain. I switched my course a little bit, as I wanted to avoid running on the main roads. I just was not ready to run with an audience of judgmental drivers with nothing better to do than heckle my running.

As we got started I was surprised the dog, with her full winter coat still hanging around (note to self, make groomers appointment asap) and her questionable heart did as good as she did. She didn't pull on the leash, she didn't try to stop to pee on anything, and short of a goose sighting that got her excited, she kept a steady pace. Actually, I did great too. I never stopped running and did it in about 15 minutes or so. I walked in the house pretty proud of both of us. Yes, it was hard, and I worked different muscles, I was sweating like a pig, the impact was strenuous (not from bad knees, but rather  from what can best be described as being "top-heavy") and dodging the hefty amounts of goose poop down by that little lake wasn't easy, but our first run was under my belt and I felt great.

I made my way upstairs to calculate my exact distance. That is when I realized I didn't stick the my original route that involved running on main roads that I had planned out the night before. It was like my confidence was an over-inflated balloon that popped as I found out that I had only run just over a mile.

Oh man. A mile? Just a mile? I'm supposed to be able to do 13x that amount in one morning? My 15 minute time was no longer impressive and my stamina seems questionable. But I guess you have to start somewhere. Thursday's forecast and my ego might require more elliptical time..  We'll see how it goes.

Starting Line.. haha, get it? Let the running puns begin!

Well, here we go. I'm training for a half marathon over the next few months. I'm not sure what to expect. I've never run distances before, at least not past 3 miles. In fact, most exercise in general has felt more like a chore than an enjoyable experience for me. Now I've definitely pushed my body to do amazing things, but usually epidurals were involved (and no one wants to read a blog about that). Physical demands aside, I've heard that some of the biggest challenges when approaching marathons are mental; I hope that is true because I can handle that obstacle. I'm motivated by the amazing strength of my daughter.

I'm running my first (and possibly last) half-marathon to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. St. Jude is an amazing place full of hope, brilliant doctors, and cutting edge pediatric cancer treatments. It is not an exaggeration to say that their efforts saved my daughter's life when her leukemia became to difficult to treat with standard chemotherapy or a traditional transplant. My daughter Leah is back home now, but is still a current patient, as she underwent a stem cell transplant back in March. We travel to Memphis monthly for follow ups. I am happy to report that right now she has no traces of leukemia in her body and her transplant has been a success!

As for me, this year has been challenging, both mentally and physically. Facing such a difficult illness with a child is heart-wrenching. But our family is strong and we have a lot of love and a strong faith in God that helped pull us through the emotional challenges. The physical demands came back in March as I went through the donor process of harvesting the stem cells for our baby girl. It required twice daily injections of GCSF for a full week and over 14 hours of apheresis to harvest. Very painful. However, just thinking of Leah and her beautiful smile, innocence and promising future got me through. Something tells me I'll be pulling out that memory often to push me through this training.

My goal with the blog is to share our story, to help in my fundraising efforts for the most worthy cause I know, and to provide comic relief to those who know me because right now I'm definitely not much of a runner. Oh, and if I'm not posting, I'm not running... so here is one more way to hold myself accountable. I've already been told my several people that I can't do it. I'm ready to prove them wrong.

The race is on Saturday, December 3rd. My real training will start in September where I'll be following a twelve week plan to prepare that I found here: http://running.about.com/od/racetraining/a/basichalf.htm Sadly, my body isn't quite ready to start the training, so I'm doing mini-training over the next six weeks to get ready for that.

Here is the link to my fundraising page: http://www.mystjudeheroes.org/LeahsHope
And the link to our CaringBridge about Leah's journey: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/LeahsHope

Thanks for following!