May

Day One: Ran 30 minutes. Covered over 2 miles. Had to walk to the office first to find my phone so I could track it!
Day Two: Home sick. Been feeling it coming, but hoped it would pass. I thought maybe my throat was hurting because I've been running with my mouth open.
Day Three: Miracle shot has me back on the road! Got my 30 minutes in. Also got bad news this morning - Naunie passed away overnight.
Day Four: Ran my 30 minutes this morning before heading to Carlisle. I had a good pace. I seem to run better in the mornings.
Day Five: Got my 30 minutes in tonight. Felt good after such an emotional day. Good to get all the good endorphins working.
Day Six: Break day. Drove back to Natchez after spending most of the day with Mom. I needed a rest.
Day Seven: Back on track. Ran 30 minutes. Each day I cover a little more ground.
Day Eight: A little slow, but I got my 30 minutes in. Feeling a little sluggish.
Day Nine: Making up for lost time! Ran my 30 minutes, well over 2 miles, AND came home and grabbed Doozer for a 20 minute, 1.25 mile, walk.
Day Ten: In Jackson all day. I got home at 6:30 and had dinner. It was way too close to being dark by the time I could get ready to run.
Day Eleven: Headed to Atlanta, but I ran my 30 minutes before I got on the road!
Day Twelve: Started with a run through Heather's neighborhood. Broke through the 13 minute/mile pace. And then she and I shopped and walked a lot today. Very active.
Day Thirteen: Followed up 7.5 hours in the car with a 30 minute run AND walking Doozer for another 25 minutes. Covered a lot of ground today!
Day Fourteen: Another double! Doozer hates to be left behind but I can't run with him. Lord knows the extra walking won't kill me.
Day Fifteen: Just did the 30 minute run tonight. Felt a little sluggish again so it wasn't my best work.
Day Sixteen: halfway through my run I twisted my ankle and had to walk home. Stupid curbs. But I still got in over two miles, altogether.
Day Seventeen: Resting the ankle.
Day Eighteen: Resting the ankle. And it was my birthday so I ate too much today. Trying to run would have been like slogging through mud.
Day Nineteen: ran my first 5K! What a way to start my 46th year!
Day Twenty: a well-earned day of rest! My ankle is none to pleased with my victory yesterday, giving it a break.
Day Twenty-one: got a little walk in after work. Ankle still pretty swollen, but Doozer was happy.
Day Twenty-two: tried to run, had to walk home. Ankle is not going to let me push myself any more this week. Stupid curbs.
Day Twenty-three: rest and recovery.
Day Twenty-four: rest and recovery. hate it, but we're having good family time.
Day Twenty-five: found an alternative - or remembered I should say. Billy's van is in the shop and he needed the car so I rode my bike to work, home at lunch, back to work, home at day's end. Felt good!
Day Twenty-six: worked out in the yard - staking tomatoes. Went to Bayou Country Superfest in Baton Rouge so there was a pretty good hike from the parking to the stadium and back. Ankle started swelling, though. Wore the wrong shoes.
Day Twenty-seven: got a little walking in, still taking it a little easy.
Day Twenty-eight: left out on my run this morning, realized I forgot my inhaler and the humidity was awful so I turned and ran on home. Went back out this evening. Tried to do the whole 3+ miles but I could only do a little over half. Going to have to build back up.
Day Twenty-nine: rested. realize after all this that you do have to listen to your body and give it a break and time to heal.
Day Thirty: learned I cannot outrun the rain! headed out, could see the storm clouds. 25 minutes into the 35 minute minute run (which I did run most all of this time! yea me!), the clouds opened up! I was soaked and had to take shelter until it passed, at which time I ran home and into a hot shower.
Day Thirty-one: Just walked 1.43 miles with The Dooze. I promised him a walk after my run last night and he was cheated by the rain. Billy headed to Arkansas today so running, with my "track" record didn't seem like a good idea.

All in all, a pretty darn good month!

I Did It!! Amended

Here's the postscript to last Saturday's Cancer Fun Run.

That morning, I did get up a little early. A few nerves. Couldn't eat. That kind of thing. And I wanted to get there early. Registration and packet pickup started at 7:30 and the Run was 8:30. Billy asked if he was supposed to go with me, since he wasn't ready and I was starting to bounce off the walls by 7:15. I told him he could bring his own car. (Side note: most everywhere we go together we take separate vehicles. He doesn't want to be there and I'm never ready to leave. So this was not unusual on this day.) I waited and finally decided I couldn't wait any longer so I went upstairs to tell him I was leaving. He was almost dressed since he'd decided to go with me, on the provision that I had him back home a little after 9. I had already done the math and told him at 13 minute miles that I needed about 40 minutes and then we could come home.

Which is what we did. I ran, ate a banana and drank some water, visited a minute or two with some people I knew, and we left.

At the office, we start every Monday morning with staff meeting. We go around the table and discuss anything going on that week, work out of the office, sports scores, etc. My partner is always first and he announced to the room that I had completed my first 5K that weekend. Lots of "yea"s from around the table. Then he picked up an envelope and said "But what she doesn't know, because she left too soon on Saturday, is that she won this in her age group" and he pulled out a 3rd place medal.

Could have knocked me over with a feather!

Of course then the jokes started about were there even three people in my age group (yes, my partner - pointing out that he is about 3 months younger than me - got second in our age group and a friend of ours was first).

So yes, the bar is now set high, and hard work is its own reward.

But a medal sure is cool.

I Did It!!

First 5K in the books!

I know what some of you are thinking, big deal, 3.1 miles. Not like it's a marathon or anything (maybe next year!). But for me, it was huge.

When I was growing up, with asthma, sometimes just going outside was a death sentence. I didn't even have to do anything to have an attack - just be standing in the grass or the beanfield. If I actually tried to run or play too hard, there I'd go. Off to Dr. Stroop's office! I truly owe that man my life.

I've written about it before, but I would get so upset by things that I physically couldn't do, but that were expected. Everyone had to go out at recess. Everyone had to participate in Field Day in elementary school. In the sixth grade we played softball and it was hard for them to find a position for me. But Daddy came and watched anyway. I couldn't hit, run, field the ball or anything else. In the fifth grade, there was the President's Challenge, or some such thing. The Challenge was to be able to do a specific set of exercises within a given time frame. Daddy and I worked and worked and worked on it. I think I might have earned the White patch - which was the lowest level - but it was hard. I still can't throw a softball. But I also remember thinking that it wasn't "fair" that I had to run and stuff like the other kids when my body wouldn't let me.

"Fair" is where you go to ride rides and eat cotton candy. Life is not fair.

But it is what you make it.

I did learn that with hard work I could achieve my goals.

And I hit one yesterday. Yes, I ran with my inhaler in my hand, just in case. Was going to leave it in the car but Billy just looked at me and asked if I was insane. And I ran knowing that there was no shame in walking if I needed to. Ladies around me were doing it. But I wanted to push as far and as hard as I could.

And that was to the finish line. 37 minutes, 55 seconds.

I checked my log last night. I started training on March 27. At that time, running for one minute straight was a big deal to me. Then a minute and a half. Two minutes. Five minutes. When I ran eight straight minutes I was so excited you would have thought I'd won an Olympic gold medal! And it built and built and built and now I can run over thirty minutes. Straight.

And no, I'm not done. I want to keep moving up the ladder and pushing myself.

Because there is a half-marathon in Mandeville in October with my name on it.

April

Well, apparently the blog ate my April! And I am so ticked about that! I updated it on Sunday through Sunday night. Realized yesterday I needed to add Monday and publish it and now it's gone. This does not make me happy. Especially since it was a kick-booty kind of month! I only missed one day of exercise - April 1. I was driving back from Carlisle that day and everyone was so happy to see me when I got home that I didn't want to spend one more minute on myself. I signed up for a 5K in May so I'm in training. Many days I got in over 2 miles walking/running. Some days I even took Doozer so there was a lot of pulling and tugging and moving faster than planned! Now I go run first, then take him for a walk. I also found out my cholesterol did drop from 240 to 204. So the medication is helping, but I'm having trouble tolerating it. That is still a work in process. The good news there is that my good cholesterol is better than my bad cholesterol is bad, so I have a good ratio even with a bad number. Apparently the ratio is the most important of all those numbers. So April had a lot of plusses! I just wish I could share them all here. Maybe this new format won't eat my May.