In The Beginning ...

I've had the idea to start a blog that is centered around my running and training for a couple months now.  This is not my first, however!  My old blog didn't have much to do about anything.  It was kind of a pre-myspace/facebook outlet of thought.  When I gave in and joined MySpace I again, had a blog about nothing in particular.  Now, I have come to notice the trend in the running community to write race reports, brag about good training days, search for support and guidance on bad training days, etc.  Well, it seems I fit right in.  But what was I doing pre-Facebook & DailyMile?


Three years ago, my friend Tina came to visit me from Houston.  She had recently joined a running group and was having a great time being active and making new friends.  I, on the other hand, was spending more hours of the day asleep than awake, didn't have to be at work until 2pm most days, and was getting fat.  About 6 months prior, I completed my massage therapy program and started working as a therapist in a wellness center.  For the most part, I'd  never been happier ... except for the not being healthy part.  We talked about this for a while and she urged me to find a program in Dallas to join. 


I took this idea to work with me.  Many of my clients were active people - surely they would know where to find groups like this.  Sure enough, there was a running specialty store - Run On - just down the street from the wellness center that was host to one of the largest running programs in the city.  Awesome.  I checked it out and they had programs for beginners like me - Awesome.  They had a Running 101 class that met twice a week and took you through a run/walk interval - Awesome.  They met on Tuesdays and Thursdays ... at 5am ... in February.  Not so Awesome.  The evening class wasn't an option for me because of my work schedule.  Not so Awesome.  But it must have been time to break out of the mold, because I joined.  And I woke my ass up and drove to the Jewish Community Center (JCC) to run in 30 and 40 degree weather.  And I blogged about it.  It went a little something like this:


Feb 19, 2008
A conversation started last night at Moni's house.  Brandon and I were invited over for a good friends, good food, good booze kinda night.  At some point in the evening, I mentioned that I wasn't going to drink too much because I was going to wake up around 4:30am the next morning for this walking/running group I joined.  Needless to say, the jokes ensued.  Not that I can blame them.  If you know anything about me, exercise and anything before noon aren't exactly my favorite things. 
The biggest joke of that conversation was the fact that I had to pay $90 to join this group . . . and they (Brandon and Monika) were going to meet at the park and walk about 20 feet behind me with a sign that was to read something like "I DIDN'T HAVE TO PAY TO WALK".  ha ha.  Another peice of humor in this is that the group meets at a center about 3 miles away from Monika's house. . . which lead to teasing about how I could have walked with her for free.  On the way home, I get a text message from Brandon saying that he was going to wake up at 5:30am and walk to counteract any teasing and for moral support.  Cool.

So when my alarm went off in the morning, I got up and went on my way.  Now, I had to look up the directions online, and mapquest had a different set than the center's website.  I chose to follow the directions from the center's site thinking that it would probably be more correct. . . oh how naive of me.  So to make this long story a little shorter, I couldn't find the center, drove past Monika's neighborhood at least 2 times, paid $90 to walk with a group of people I don't know and I missed the first day.  After about 25 minutes of driving around, I said f#%k it, better luck next time.  The next meeting is on Thursday; I wonder if Brandon woke up this morning and walked.  Sucka!!


Feb 26, 2008
WARNING:  The following is a rant and nothing more.  Please be advised to see through the bullshit and complaining.  This situation was not brought on by force, it was a choice.

I must be friggin' insane.

I made it to my first day of the 5:30am running group (technically the 3rd day of "class" . . . see previous blog for details).  It's not the worst idea I've ever had, but it's close.  But that's not the point.

When I signed up for this class, I understood that I wasn't signing up for a "leisurely stroll" group.  I also knew it was a training class of sorts, not just a "hey, we all like to walk, so let's do it in a group so we'll have more fun".  HOWEVER.  When they say "training", they mean "TRAINING".  And when they say "walk/run", they mean "walk/RUN".  This is a class, not just a group, with fitness goals, lifestyle goals, distance goals. . . you get the point.  We walk for a minute, run for 2, walk for a minute, run for 2 1/2 - see the pattern?  Good.  The end result is a local 5K at the end of March.  (Yes, I will be waking up ass-early twice a week for the next 5 weeks).  Oh, and when I got up this morning, according to weather.com it was 41 degrees, but it "feels like" 32 degrees.  (How do they know what it feels like?)  But I digress.

So not only have I paid to join a group that forces me to exercise in the cold at insane hours of the morning . . . twice a week. . . I now have to set goals.  Oh, and did I mention?  There is a training schedule they handed out with extra days of "independent running" outside the Tues/Thurs regimen to help us maintain our work and push us to our goals.  Shit.  At least I got a free shirt.  I think it's too big though.

It's time now for me to eat my banana, drink some more water, set my goals to show my coach on Thurs . . .


March 11, 2008
The alarm on my phone goes off. . . it's 4:15am, Tuesday, time to get up.  Three snooze buttons later I get out of bed, throw on my running gear and open the front door.  Fog.  Lots and lots of thick white fog.  The clouds have decided to leave their home in the sky and decided to cover the ground.  I'm sitting in my truck.

"Ok, let's just make it out of the parking lot and see how this is gonna go. . . one step at a time."  The street by my apartment complex is just as bad, if not worse and I find myself sitting in the middle of the road with my hazards on talking myself out of today's run.  This is no small amount of fog.  It's the creepy kind where you can't see the other cars until they are right up next to you.  The kind where you have to drive 10mph just to be sure you are following the white and yellow lines on the street. 

"If it's this bad here, it's GOT to be more dangerous on the highways, right?" 
Sounds good.  I turn the truck around and make it back to my parking spot; but before I get out and call it a loss, I hesitate.  I remember last Tuesday when I threw in the towel because it was snowing; everyone knows you can't run in the snow.

"Turn the truck back on.  I know you're tired, you've got a long day of work today, didn't get much sleep last night, drank too much, shouldn't have had those cigs, it's probably gonna hurt a little. . .  but how are you gonna feel if you go back inside?"

All of a sudden, the engine of my truck is back on and I'm making my way back out of the fog-filled parking lot, through the clouds on the highways, making it to the meeting place right on time.  So to answer the "how's the running class going" question some of you keep asking?  My response is simply "fuckin' groovy."




May 31, 2008
When I joined the "Run On!" run/walk class about 3 months ago, it's safe to say I didn't know what I was getting myself in to.  Little did I know that a "running group" and a "training class" are two extremely different things. . . turns out I joined a "training group". 

The first two 6wk sessions were a good challenge, but I became acclimated to running for about 25-35 minutes at 5:30am on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  (Oh, and when I say run, let me assure you that I mean run/walk - run for 4-6 min, walk for 1).  Mid-May saw the end of this series, and naturally you move up.  Well let me tell you something. . .

I ran my first 5K this morning - the Just For The Heck Of It, Race Against Misogyny (RAM) in Ft. Worth along the Trinity River.  (Proceeds go to women's shelters in Ft. Worth.)  NOT exactly the best experience of my life, but I managed to finish in about 42:35.  My coach says that's a pretty good for my first time running in the heat, but it was a little emabarrassing I must say. 

And you'll be glad to know that my insanity is progressing nicely, as I have joined the 301 Base Marathon Training class.  At the end of this 8 wk training, I should be able to run the Too Hot To Handle 15K around White Rock Lake here in Dallas.  Then I get to decide if I will join the Half Marathon/Marathon class.  My next 5K is in a couple weeks, wish me luck?  NO, wish me sanity!

Today is January 8, 2011.  I have run 9 long distance runs (6 half marathons, two 20k's and a 25k) with 2 more half marathons by the end of March.  I have cut 31 minutes off my half marathon time in 10 weeks, and will begin full marathon training in May.  Hello, my name is Erin and I am a runner!