The Beginning

I dont consider myself a writer- well not a very good one anyway- so kindly hold your judgements. My intentions in writing this blog do not include showing off any writings skills- or any skills at all for that matter. I've decided to outline a sort-of journey I'm taking to work on the only thing I'm less skillful at than writing- running.

I've always enjoyed sports; I played little league in grade school and high school volleyball, I even played in a weekly ultimate frisbee game in college. Point being, I'm not a terribly lazy person (well that's not completely, but bear with me), I just can't run, plain and simple. That's not to say I haven't tried.

A number of times in high school and college I planned with a friend or two to start running together, for exercise, fun, or what have you. I would wake up very early, get out of bed, get dressed in all my work-out attire and attempt to run. These mornings would usually end about 10 minutes later with me out of breath, making up excuses as to why I can't continue running. I happen to be really good at making up excuses, but the truth is that I have asthma.

I found out when I was about 14 that I had exercise-induced asthma. This was by far my favorite excuse and certainly valid at that, and I've been using it ever since. I would continue to use this excuse probably forever if it weren't for my husband. He is convinced that asthma is something that can be overcome and has challenged me to prove him wrong - though proving him right is really the challenge.

I went running with my husband for the first time not too long ago. It was an absolute disaster. My husband runs anywhere between 5-10 kilometers each time he goes running. I hoped to make it about 2k with him my first time out. Long story short, I almost threw up before we even hit the 1 kilometer mark. I didn't think I was in such great shape, but this was just embarrassing. I wanted to just forget about the whole thing; it clearly was just not meant to be - not everyone can be a runner. My husband did not agree.

My husband had just finished reading the book Born to Run, in which author Christopher McDougall outlines his journey to uncover the secret running abilities of the recluse Mexican Indian tribe, the Tarahumarra. He explains, like the title states, that we can all run, in fact, we were born to do so. My husband then convinced me that rather than be defeated from my near-death (as I exaggeratedly tell it) running experience, I should take some advice from a pro (and Nike) and 'just do it'.

Now we come back to this blog. I've wanted to start a blog in the past, in fact I'm pretty sure I have started a few, but I guess I never really had anything very interesting to write about. My idea is that if I can write about this endeavor in a publicly available venue, and actually get people to read it, I will be pretty embarrassed if I fail. So here we are- wish me luck!