Mile one

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Sometimes I get crazy ideas. Like walking 39 miles for charity. Or jumping out of a plane. Or getting a tattoo...again. All of which hurt a bit, one of which took almost a year for my toenails to recover from.

This week, I've decided that it's time for another crazy idea, and another thing on "The List". I have gone back and forth with this one, putting it on, and taking it off again. Honestly speaking, don't know if I'll be able to pull it off. But I figure that I'm not getting any younger, and this will *definitely* get harder with age.

I'm going to try to run the NYC Marathon next year. (That's *NEXT* year.)

This will be tough, mainly because I don't really care much for running. At all. But this is what I would consider a fairly minor hurdle compared to the fact that I'm fundamentally a lazy person, and a wimp when it comes to pain. But hey...why not give it a shot?

Today I started my rigorous training by running one mile. On a treadmill. In the gym. Here's how the journey went:

Mile 0.00: I can DO THIS! Yay!!!! (put cool music on iPod, plug in headphones, hop on treadmill. Yay! Inspiration!)

Mile 0.15: I feel great! This is awesome. And damn, this is a really good song, too. Maybe if I make it to a mile, and I feel good, I'll keep going!

Mile 0.25: Already a quarter of the way there! Breathing's tough, but so far, not too bad. Oh, dont' like this song... next.

Mile 0.26: Ugh. Breathing is really tough now. I gotta stop looking at this mile counter thing. It's depressing. (puts towel over machine display)

Mile ?.??: Wow, hate this song (skip) and this one (skip) and this one (skip)... let's go back to the first one, that was good.

Mile ?.??: Getting embarassingly out of breath... I've gotta be about half way done now... (peek at distance meter... it says 0.32.) Damn.

Mile ?.??: (peeked...says 0.35) Seriously?

Mile ?.??: (peeked... says 0.38) Okay, no more peeking.

Mile ?.??: (peeked...says 0.52) YAY!! Over half way there! This song is getting repetative and boring now.

Mile 0.62: OW!!!! What's wrong with my knee?!?! Where'd THAT come from?!?!

Mile 0.75: Three quarters of a mile. I always knew I was a sprinter at heart. You know... one day I will turn this into a marathon blog... "I started with one mile..." so maybe by the time I run a real marathon, it'll be 3/4ths of the way through the REAL marathon that I will feel this bad... (this is a lame attempt to keep myself optimistic, by the way.)

Mile 0.80: OW! MY KNEE REALLY HURTS! This is going to suck.

Mile 0.82: Hmmm... knee getting better... but my .... breathing... is not .... getting better.

Mile 0.90: Beginning to hate my iPod. Note to self: Get better freakin' running music.

Mile 0.93: Almost there! Just hang on... don't pass out now. Cute guy on treadmill #2 won't think that's cool.

Mile 0.96: Wow, it's amazing how far a mile is. Can I do this 26 times? I dunno... maybe this was a bad idea.

Mile 1.00: YAY!!! Took me 12 minutes, but I made it. I don't even remember the last time I spent 12 minutes in a row running.

The rest of my 30 minute workout was spent on the eliptical machine, which didn't bruise my ego quite as much. And yes, I fully realize that running a 12 minute mile is an awefully lame thing to do, and that publishing it on the blog will probably embarass the crap out of me. But I also figure that I'm more likely to actually accomplish a goal by putting it out there than to keep it to myself.

I don't know if I'll run a marathon. My knee still hurts, which doesn't sound like a good way to start this journey. But maybe, just maybe, if any of you are exceedingly bored, or just want to jog alongside one of the slowest runners in NYC, you can join me for a *short* run some day.

If you promise not to make fun of how slow I am, or how many times I have to stop to "tie my shoe," then maybe I'll treat you to a milkshake afterwards.
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