Gummy Bears, Big-Eyed Giraffes, and my Treadmill.

Yesterday was the last day of school for my two big girls (DD8 and DD6). I am very excited to have them both home with me again for the summer, and there was lots of celebrating - including a trip to Chapters to buy summer work-books, chapter books, and a little big-eyed giraffe for DD2 (couldn't leave her out). There was also two big bouquets of flowers from Daddy, cupcakes, and lots, and lots of gummy bears. All those gummy bears made mommy very thirsty - so I washed them down with a can and a half of coke. Then I went for my run.

Puke.

Well, not literally, but my stomach was killing me. It felt like I was running with a rock in my stomach. But, I decided to "Jock Up" and "Push Through", like all the real athletes do. When all was said and done my Nike Plus told me I had run 4.77 kms in 30 mins and 10 seconds with an average pace of 6'19"/km. Wow, right? Except...I was on my treadmill. And my treadmill told me I ran "3.0". I always thought my treadmill was in kilometres and running 3.0 km's in 30 minutes is not so much "wow", really. At least not if you are hoping to run 5.0K, in not much more than that time, in 6 weeks.

Buuut...three miles would be a pretty accurate conversion for my Nike Plus system's 4.77 kilometres. And, I was running pretty hard (for me). Of course, this is also on a nice cushy treadmill and a, um, zero percent incline.

Is it possible my treadmill has been in miles all along???

Oh, I hope so. That would mean I might actually be able to do this thing!

...as long as the organizers of the 5K race let me bring some extra equipment to the park, and let me run my race on the treadmill.

My First 5k

Hey! I just signed up for my first 5K this morning. How exciting, right? Except...I can't actually run a 5K. I'm really not a runner. Really. I'm not one of those people that say, "Oh, I'm really not a runner", and the fact is they just did a 5K last week and finished in 23 minutes. And, that was after they ran a half marathon the week before. No. I'm really. not. a. runner.

Put it this way, in high school I joined the Track and Field team (because I wanted the jacket). I signed up for cross country. Don't ask me why, because I have no earthly idea. After the first practice the coach took me aside and suggested that perhaps the 100m sprint would be more my speed. Or, rather, more my distance.  So I did my little 100 and I do believe I came in 5th. Of 6. After that I switched to cycling.

I can cycle until the cows come home (well...that is relative, too. I have a friend who just rode her bike for 24 hours straight. No, I'm not kidding. I think she covered the distance of roughly "to the moon and back"), but there has always been that whole "I can't run" thing stuck in the back of my mind bugging the crap out of me. I don't really like to be told what I can and can not do, I guess. Even by myself.

Enter Chi Running, Newton Shoes, Cathy Zielske, and a winter spent on my treadmill in the basement and...well...long story short...I still can't run. Much. But, I now have this crazy, "I can run" thing stuck in my head and, for some unearthly reason, don't ask me why, I now think I can run a 5K in 2 months.

So, why not start a blog to document the train wreck process, right? That's what I thought. Now you can come along with me on my journey as I learn to Run Like a Mother! Enjoy the thrills as I eek past that dreaded 3.0K mark (that is like some huge flippin' road block to me right now). Soak up the knowledge as I drone on endlessly about my Newton shoes (which are so incredibly cute I don't honestly care very much if they help). Bask in my glow as I drip sweat on my keyboard.

And, maybe, just maybe, you'll decide to become my friend on Nike Running and challenge me to a game of Tag!

Oh, it's going to be great.