The Big Run

8/11/12.......
This shit sucks.  Why am I doing this again??? Oh yeah - to be a better person, get in shape, feel better about myself, my over all heath, set an example for my kid, do something with my life, blah blah blah.  Yeah whatever, being mediocre never hurt anybody.

I'm up at 6:15am on a freakin Saturday.  My three year old daughter gets to sleep in....but not me (and she's up at the butt crack of dawn every damn day). Today's my first day, my first run.  I'm training for the f*cking Los Angeles Marathon.  What in the world have I got myself into. 26.2 miles of pure, unadulterated hell!!! And I can't wait!!! I cannot believe how excited, scared and some other stuff I am about this. I've been "training" to run the marathon since 2007.

Regardless, I'm not a morning person and getting to my training group in Santa Monica (I'm based in Inglewood, CA) at 7am every Saturday morning is a blog all on its own, but I digress.
I'm up and I'm surprisingly awake.  I slept in my running clothes to save time and cus I'm lazy and don't give a fudge. My friend and running buddy who spent the night and I are up and ready to roll.  We get to Santa Monica at 7am on the dot, find parking, find our running/training club and get ready to rumble ;)

I'm scared, excited, anxious, nervous and more... to say the least.  This is it, no turning back (:/ at least for right now).  I haven't run anything since college, and that was many a many many many MANY moons ago.
Anywoot, we get there, check in and get ready to run a whopping one mile.  Haha I know, some may think that's small potatoes, or not even potatoes at all, but it's worth all the potatoes of Ireland to someone like me.
So we're off. With a quick pep talk from our mentors we're separated into groups of 25 and we start our run.  The point is to see how fast, or in my case how slow/long, it takes us to run a mile.  Then we will be placed in our individual "pace groups" to train with for the next 6 months...yikes.

Did I say this shit sucks.  As soon as I start running I start to get cramps in the back of both my legs.  Both hamstrings gone...smdh (**note to self, find a leg stretch or some type of work out that will help with this problem). I forget about my old "war" injury - my knee- until it starts throbbing ever so slightly. And no, I was never in a war; by war I mean the war of life.  The war of having ridiculously week knees, lungs, body parts, etc (note to self, buy a knee brace).  Then my thighs start burning something bad.  I slow down and try and reassess my situation.  Though I'm still "jogging" a woman power walking behind me starts and succeeds to pass me up :/ oookay.  Did I mention I can't breathe.  All the while my friend is merrily chatting it up with me because "that is what you are supposed to do when you exercise." If I can't breathe, how the f*ck am I supposed to talk.  I don't think I care for my friend too much anymore.

I decide to stop and walk; get my barrings straight, catch my breath and walk out the cramps in my legs.  I already feel as thought I've done 100 sit ups non-stop.  God I'ma mess.

Anyways I start running again; I continue on slowly but surely.  Determined to at least pass up the power walking woman who passed me up.  My friend is long gone but I don't care, I solider on. I didn't stop again to walk, just ran really REALLY slow at times, and finished at 13 minutes and 30 seconds (my friend 12 min. 21 secs).  Not bad I guess....I don't even remember if I passed the power walker.

Since my friend wanted to be together we compromised for the 14 min mile pace group (I should be in the 14.5-15min group while she should be in the 13.5-14min group).  We sat for about a half hour for the orientation, which explained about the training club, what to do, what not to do, yadda yadda ya.

When trying to exit the building I found that I could not walk.  Literally, my legs had shut down.  Besides the fact that I was sweating profusely through out the orientation (my friend made quite a few not so nice comments about this fact), my legs felt stiff yet at the same time like silly puddy.  (**side note, today is Wed 8/15/12 and my legs still hurt a bit)  I was in real bad shape, but I persevered etc etc. I made it and I guess it wasn't that bad.  I'm psyched to see how it goes next Saturday when we have to run 2 miles. Afterwards my friend and I went to celebrate our venture on a new.....life????  We ate a nice not too unhealthy breakfast at the Crepe Cafe in downtown Santa Monica. Yum yum.

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Now....I'm obsessed.  With what you say? Oh everything Running.  I've already got the shoes.  Picked those up a few months ago and it was the best decision I ever made.  After scouring the Internet for hours and hours on end, it took me forever to find the right ones.  But I did and love them.  Asics GT-2170; did I tell you I LOVE them.  They're like the best shoe EVER!!! http://www.rei.com/product/827875/asics-gt-2170-road-running-shoes-womens
But yeah I'm obsessed with anything that has to do with running.  I find myself perusing the Internet in search of the best running clothes, accessories, yoga, Pilates, sports massages, day spas (gotta get those toxins out), radical cleanses of the system (can't run when your body's polluted with toxins), what foods to eat, the right running apps for my phone (MapMyRun vs. Endomondo), new marathons all over the city, state, country, world, the Olympics (Las Vegas, San Diego, Hawaii, New York, Chicago, Long Beach, Anaheim, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Rio to name a few). I will run all of them.  I search blog after blog, article after article, search engines hate me.

I can't stop thinking about it.  Somethings definitely wrong with me.  I feel like a balloon that's about to burst.
I hope I stay feeling this way.  We'll see after my first mid week exercise run. Wishing me luck ;)