W5D3

I struggled with what title to give this entry. This entry has soo much for me.

• First time to run twenty minutes straight
• First time to run a complete mile
• First time to cry at the gym
• Tiger woods congratulated me on my best mile ever

Tuesday I was suppose to run my first full 20 minutes and I was scared. So on Tuesday night, I cleaned house like a mad woman and did the weekly grocery shopping. In other words, I tried to keep myself busy so that I didn't have to do it.

Wednesday rolls around and I know it is now or never. My Mini is giving me smack and the weight of the fear is worse than not even trying. I mean, in reality, if I have to start walking in the middle of it, who cares? How many times did I stop in W2, when 90 seconds seemed too hard, or during the three minute runs, I felt as if my legs were going to give? It happened too many times to count. So at 10pm, I got up enough nerve and went to the gym with my family. ( I love 24 hour gyms).

I got on a treadmill, decided I was going to do the run without the C25K prompts on a podcast or on my Iphone application, changed the TV in front of me to Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and started. The warm up was usual and then I started to run.

My pace was 3.3 on the treadmill. Believe it or not, the first 7 minutes were the hardest to run and I thought I wasn't going to be able to do it. To take my mind off the minutes, I started to read the closed captioning on the TV and before I knew it, it was 12 minutes into the run. I remember looking down at 14:51 minutes (this is the girl that died on the 90 seconds and now 171 secs go by and I don't even feel it.) I felt amazing. Because it was dark outside and the blinds were open, I could see my reflection in the mirror...I looked like a runner. When I hit minute 15, I knew I could do this. Mentally, I was saying, 5 minutes is nothing. Two weeks ago, 5 minutes seemed like so much to me. I am getting better and I am loving it.

At 19:01 minutes of running and the treadmill was at 1.21 miles, I hit my first big milestone. I had run a complete mile. I started to cry and yelled out "I just ran my first mile". Thank goodness the only people in the gym were me and my family. Oh, no, I was crying so much that I couldn't catch my breath and I was still trying to run...I had 50 seconds left. I felt great but just couldn't catch my breath. But I did it. I finished my run. My family heard me yell and they saw me crying so they gathered around me to congratulate me.

But you know what was my proudest moment? When I was looking at the reflection of the gym in the glass window, I saw my daughter behind me on an Arc trainer. She was watching me and smiling. Every once and a while, she gave me a thumbs up. And when she came over to my treadmill, she said, "Mama, I am proud of you. You did it." My husband said he was proud of me. He said he remembers me dying on 90 second runs and now through patience and perseverance, I am able to do twenty minutes. Even Tiger Woods congratulated me on my best mile ever.

This gal, whose comfort zone was the fact that she was too big to run, just ran 20 minutes. I couldn't believe it. I didn't stop when I got tired and pushed through. It felt good to run. It no longer was a struggle.

Running has given me back my confidence. Who knew I would become a PR junkie? I have to be honest with you. I have seen those initials everywhere in magazines and didn't know what they meant. They mean Personal Record. Yes, I am a PR Junkie. I also started biking and I want to Kayak. These are things I didn't think I could do and the Kayak thing scared me last summer. Now, I can't wait to try it.