Sunday, March 10, 2013

The Beginning

My journey beings back in August of 2010.  At that time I was overweight with high cholesterol and high blood pressure.  I wasn't very happy with my lot in life and finally decided to do something about it.  I owned a stationary exercise bike that had been used as a clothes rack for quite some time.  I finally decided to remove the clothes and add new batteries to the bike.  I started slow, biking a bit while watching TV or playing video games.  Eventually I worked my way up to the point that I was biking for 2 hours at a time.  I dropped nearly 15 pounds during this time.  I was ready for the next challenge...

My first run occurred in October of 2010.  I met up with a friend who was a runner for a jog on a Friday evening.  I didn't think I'd have too much of an issue considering I was biking for 2 hours at a time, how hard could a couple miles be?  I certainly ate my words after that.  I made it about a half mile before I needed to stop, and then stopped every quarter mile after that.  Running was a lot harder than I remembered.

After that first day I kept at it, running on my own in jog/walk intervals, slowly adding distance.  I still bit off more than I could chew and wound up with tendonitis in my knee that first month.  I wound up being sidelines until late November until I could slowly try again, and with more rest in between runs.  I was lucky we had a mild winter and was able to get runs in on a somewhat regular basis.  In the spring I signed up for my first race, the Shamrock Shuffle.  I wound up getting shin splits leading up to the race and was worried about completing it.  Much to my surprise I not only completed the race, I rocked my time goal.  The adrenaline and excitement kicked in and I have become a race addict ever since.

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