Running is for the birds

Originally Posted: October 29, 2008

Current mood:exhausted

I was convinced last week that today I would run 3 miles for discounted food and beer from Mellow Mushroom. Sounds simple right? Sure it does. Unless perhaps you're like me and haven't jogged further than half a mile since the Fairhope Two Mile Fun Run... of 1991.

Of the 27 years of my existence, I have no clue what life event convinced me that running such a distance out of the blue was a good decision. It definitely could not have been the repeated years of bronchitis I get when hanging out in cold weather, the childhood asthma or my general lack of interest in distance running. This said, I still did it.

The run started off well enough, and my initial thought was "this may not be that bad". Literally 6 blocks down the road I was whisked back to reality when I began to cry internally. Being a ninja, I have trained my tears to fall inward to hide weakness... but that is an entirely different story. My 3 mile run quickly turned into a single mile run with a nice 2 mile walking tour of midtown at dusk followed by an awful headache and rubber legs. A fine evening by anyone's standards.

There is something to be said about a sport where you start and stop in generally the same spot using the longest, most out of the way route to get there while and the ultimate goal is to be allowed to stop doing the activity. If not for the health benefits, I'm quite sure this could be classified as an act of insanity.

As much as I have complained about the run... there is a decent chance I will do this again next week as long as it is a bit warmer out. It gets me out of the house... and what else am I going to do? Go to the gym that is closer to my house and that I'm currently paying for until my contract ends in a year? Yeah right...