What I'm learning what I'm learning how to run (part 5)

I'm learning . . . I can do it!


It wasn't pretty.  It wasn't fast.  It was really challenging.  And yes, in its own way, it was fun!

It's taken me a year to make this happen.  First, I started training.  Then I realized I couldn't actually do any training program that I could find so I just kept showing up.  After getting really good on the treadmill, I lost all the ground I'd gained (no pun intended) when I realized that running on the road was nowhere near the same.  I almost ended up starting over.  But I kept showing up.  And today, I finished the Chuy's Hot to Trot 5K for Special Olympics.

There were more than 2000 runners, not counting dogs and small children.  I finished at 45:38, behind a lot of people but ahead of a lot of people too, and not just the walkers.  (A lot of walkers beat me, too, but I wasn't counting.  The goal was to finish.)

Here are a few more random things I've learned:

• Don't look at little kids or small dogs and automatically assume that you can keep up.  It will make you feel really bad when you can't.
• If you're running with your wife and you're going to get mad if she has to stop and tie her shoe, let her run with her friends and leave her alone.  Marriage counselors running behind you don't want to be mentally working while you argue.
• It's not nice to change the course that you advertised.  Especially if the part you add is further.  And uphill.
• Any 5K sponsored by a Mexican food restaurant is going to draw a different crowd than a 5K sponsored by a fitness club.  Thank goodness.
• It was mostly accurate to advertise as a flat course.  Of course, that meant Austin-flat, not Lubbock-flat.
• The lyrics to the theme from Rocky (recommended by many of you) are "Gonna Fly Now," not "Gonna Die Now."  Supposedly.
• When you take on something you've never done before and you've never even done anything like it and you learn how to do it, you feel really great!
• Except for showing up, nothing matters more than the encouragement of people who love you.  Thanks to all of you!