Breakfast at Karen's: 5K, here I come!

I've always wanted to be a runner and I've always wanted to be a swimmer. Recently, I've taken on running. The swimming can wait as this may involve psychotherapy. Let's just say that a swimming instructor physically forced a terrified child, head-first, into the deep end of the pool. I guess that was how the YMCA taught children who can't swim, to dive, back in the mid to late 70's. As I said, psychotherapy.

I want to make it clear about the type of runner that I want to be. As of today, I have no desire to run in half marathons or marathons. I have no desire to time myself. Running a 5K here and a 10K there without stopping would be quite sufficient. This is my goal today. One day, I may want to do more.

About 2 months ago, as part of this goal, I decided that I would participate in the Ben Does Life tour when it comes to Atlanta on Sunday, June 26. I thought that was realistic since I could comfortably walk 5 miles. In the last few months, I would run at least a third of it. My strategy was similiar to the Couch to 5K running plan. So, I could possibly complete a 5K without walking. If only I believe.

Initially, when I made a conscious decision to jog longer than half a mile, I remember exactly how I felt. Sluggish, slow and annoyed. Sluggish and slow, because I was. Annoyed, because I didn't want to feel sluggish and slow. I wanted to go jogging off into the sunset like I had been running for years. But that's not how it works. One great piece of advice given to me from a colleague and friend was that I should jog at a really slow pace. She said something like... Karen, c'mon...like for real...technically you could jog at a slower pace than you currently walk. That made a whole lot of sense to me and it works.

When I'm running, I'm aware of demoralizing thoughts such as BOY ARE YOU SLOW, MAYBE YOU SHOULD STOP, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS, YOU ARE WAYYY TOOO BIG TO BE RUNNING, I BET YOU LOOK RIDICULOUS AND SOMEWHAT FLICTED...etc, etc, etc. I no longer worry about these thoughts or chastise myself for having them. That's just fear and disbelief talking. They do a whole lot of yappin initially in protest of change. Besides, thoughts come and go. All I need to do is to just keep running. And I do.

The place where I am in training is Mountain Park Park. And yes, it is really named Mountain Park Park. One of my friends who lives close to the park told me about it. I love it. There are all kinds of friendly people there of different ages and skin hues. Just the other day a tall, white fellow with beautiful grey hair in his sixties or seventies jogged past me and waved his hand and said...Hello there! It was almost as if we knew each other. I want to be like that twenty years from now. I want to be jogging past people, enthusiastic, vibrant and saying hi to people I don't know.

The park gets great useage because of the trails, baseball fields, tennis courts, skateboard park, soccer field and playground. The 1 mile multi-use paved trail has 1/10 mile distance markers and that is great for what I'm trying to do. This is one great use of public dollars.

On this particular day, I spent the first mile leisurely walking and taking photos (see below). I then jogged the next two miles without stopping. The last mile I walked and smiled like a fool. It was approximately 1:08 pm, Sunday, May 15, 2011 when I finished 4 miles. When I started the first mile at 11:55 am, I had no intention of jogging 2 miles. However, I have consistently jogged 1-1.5 miles without stopping the last two weeks. This time, I had reached a particular stopping point and decided to keep going. It was a pretty simple decision. Just keep going. 5K, here I come!

The starting point. Most distance markers are partially hidden.