I ran ten miles this morning. That’s right, ten. T-E-N. The big 1-0.
I realize that a lot of people run a lot more miles than that. But for me, it is a milestone. A personal goal I have been working toward. Such a nice round number. We humans like round numbers, don’t we?
In fact, a round number is what got me started running last year. It was late winter and I was staring at the calendar. By the end of spring I would be thirty. That’s right, thirty. T-H-I-R-T-Y. The big 3-0.
Age has never really bothered me before. In fact, it wasn’t really the age itself that was bugging me then. I don’t mind telling people my age, if they ask. (Although they really shouldn’t, I mean, didn’t their parents teach them any manners?) I’ve never felt compelled to fudge the numbers at all. To me, it’s merely a mathematical equation. Today’s date minus your birth date equals your age. Black and white, no big deal.
But here I was, realizing my twenties were quickly dwindling. And instead of looking back feeling like I had been in my prime for the past decade, I was feeling slow and squishy. If that was my prime, was it even more downhill from here? Yikes!
Don’t get me wrong, some great things happened in my twenties: got married, did a lot of traveling, had two amazing kids, etc. But physically, I wasn’t exactly on top of my game. I had some spurts of exercise and eating well, but never managed to sustain it for more than a few months. I tend to be a very “all or nothing” kind of person, which is not the most balanced approach to fitness. And I knew I didn’t want to spend the next ten years in the same hot-and-cold cycle.
So, I decided to try something I had always hated before. I started running. Well, sort of. Mostly a slow, painful jog interspersed with many long segments of walking. (I loosely followed the “Couch to 5k” program, which I highly recommend for beginners.) In order to stick with the program, I signed up for my first 5K race. And the journey began …
More on that later, but for today, I’m going to bask in the glory of my 10 miles. And take a nap.
