So, I went down to Vac & Dash yesterday and signed myself and my sister, Vance’s mom, up for the Freedom 5k in Oakboro next Saturday (June 28th). I’m excited about experiencing my very first race day. My goals are very simple.

1. Have fun with Mary
2. Finish
3. Don’t look like this guy at the end

That’s it. I’ll post the results after the race.

I finished up the Couch to 5K program last week, so it was time to find a new challenge. I looked at quite a few that sounded good, but right now I just need to build up my base miles. So far, I’ve run a bit over 61 miles in just over 2 months. I need to get up around 15-20 miles a week, and right now I’m somewhere around 9-10. So (drumroll, please)…

…today I started the One Hour Runner (scroll down a bit to see the program). In 10 weeks, I will log a one hour run, which should be somewhere between a 5 or 6 mile run. I ran for 33 minutes tonight, which was cool, but the coolest part was what I saw during my run. To find out what it was, you’ll have to jump over to the 704 blog.

9 weeks ago, I started a training program that has been used by thousands of people to get them started in running. The name is “Couch to 5K” and it can be found over at the Cool Running website. It claims to take you from never running to running a 5k in 9 weeks. I was skeptical for one main reason:

I HATE RUNNING!!!!

But, there’s other things I hate more than running, like not being around for my children’s graduations, weddings, and children. I also hate the idea of becoming a fat preacher because, well, honestly, there’s already an over-abundance of those. So, as much as I hate running, I figured it beat the alternative of being dead even while I’m alive, and so I gave the program a shot. Here are the results:

Week 1, Day 1:
I ran/walked 1.2 miles in 20 minutes. Yes, that is a blistering 16:40/mile pace. I weighed 207 pounds. I’d like to think that most of that was muscle, but people know me and so it makes it hard to live with that delusion. I do have a fairly large frame, so I can carry that much weight without looking overweight. But the point is that I don’t need to carry 207 around.

Week 9, Day 3:
Today, I finished my last run of the program. I ran without walking 3.1 miles in 30:26. I won’t know how much I weigh until tomorrow morning when I step on the scales, but last Sunday I was down to 201. I’m hoping to be somewhere at or under 200 (UPDATE: I weighed in at 200 pounds, so I lost a little under a pound a week on the program).

I feel great. I didn’t die. I can play more with my kids now without breathing heavy while trying to convince them that I’m fine when they know I’m not. That alone makes it worth the trouble. I’m not sure if I can say that I still hate running. I think we’re going to date a bit and see if this relationship works out. We’ll see.