Friday, July 10, 2009

1/2 marathon thoughts

A few months ago, we purchased this treadmill.  
(Yes, weird picture, it is the only one I have of it).

We bought it mainly so Dentist husband and I wouldn't have an excuse to not exercise.  It is in our Great room, in front of our TV and is a constant reminder that we need to use it.  

Shortly after getting it, I made this pronouncement and was convinced by my friend Gabriela to join her doing this 1/2 marathon next summer.

This is a scary thing for me for a lot of reasons.  First, Gabriela is an amazing runner--always has been.  I have some distant memory of her in high school on the cover our school newspaper when both the boys and girls track teams took State that year.  She was somehow featured because she was so good.  So, running anything with her is intimidating.  My only crutch is that she lives at sea level and I live 5180 miles above sea level.  She just ran the above mentioned 1/2 marathon at just under a 9 minute mile (Yes, Gabriela, I checked).

2nd, while I have run many 10k's, I hate doing those and those are less half as long as a 1/2 marathon.

3rd, after purchasing our treadmill, I now know how bad of a runner I am.  When I first started, I struggled to run 2 miles without stopping at approx. a 16 minutes a mile  pace.  Struggled is not even a good word for it.  More like felt like I was dying during the whole thing.  

Well, today, has been my best run ever, running a 12 minute mile (with moments for forcing myself to run a 10 minute mile) for 3 1/2 miles. without stopping.  I am way far away from doing the 1/2 marathon thing, but I have made progress and I still have a year.  I can do this right?  
 

5 comments:

Gabriela said...

You can TOTALLY do it.

Thanks for your kind words, but you make me out to be a better runner than I ever was. :)

Thanks for the fun time tonight, it was great. (no exclamation point only because you don't like them, not because it wasn't that fun.

Anonymous said...

Yes, you can. That's really GREAT!.

Tess said...

Hooray! That's great progress and you can do anything you set your heart on.

David said...

keep us updated on your progress, the 1/2 marathon will be so much fun! i have a question for toothsome family, since you are probably experts. is there anything special about Rembrandt toothpaste? It costs a lot of money, so I'm curious to know if it really is better, hence the price, or if crest and aquafresh and colgate are just as good.

love.boxes said...

You totally can do this Janice.. excellent progress already!