Comments from Class Member
Why I run…
Last January my wife, Amy, and I began the adoption process. My weight was out of control around 300 lbs. and I needed to get into shape. A friend of ours came to us and said she wanted to set up a marathon team with the Chosen Marathon for Adoption to help support our adoption. It seemed perfect as Amy and I wanted to get into shape and lose weight anyhow and we certainly didn’t have the money to fund our adoption. Besides that, our boys are growing and are getting to the ages that they will want to play sports and I want to be able to be active with them, not just watch and give excuses why I shouldn’t participate in things with them.
So, February 28th last year Amy and I downloaded an app on our iPhones called Couch to 5k. In the first week you alternate running 1 minute and walking for 90 seconds 8 times. Those 1 minute runs seemed like an eternity. Just as a funny side note, our friend that got all this rolling thought a marathon was 13.1 miles and a half was 6.5 or she admits she would never have raised the idea. By the time she realized it, she was already committed and had it posted all over Facebook and church. I still remember how hard those first runs were. How hard it was to make my legs move, and how hard it was to breathe. There was no such thing as a “conversational pace”. Since I could see the timer on my phone while we ran, I would try to call out how many seconds of the minute remained. We were running about a 16 minute mile pace and just 30 to 45 seconds of running made it enough of a challenge to just say “15 seconds left” that I had to shorten it to just saying “15” or “10” or “5”. But, each week our bodies adapted. In about week 5, it seemed that maybe we would need to repeat a week, but doing so would mean that we would not finish the program in time for our goal race (good reason to have a goal race) so we just did our best and our bodies did adapt. Since it was tax season, it was hard to stay committed, but I knew it was a slippery slope and that if I missed 1 run, it could become two, then three, and soon I would be right back where I started, so we committed to do our runs no matter what time we had to squeeze them in. One night after work that meant I started running at 1am, but it felt better than missing it. Soon we were dealing with shin splints and knee pain.
That is when my addiction to Run On! began. I knew we needed good running shoes, but I wasn’t sure how much faith I wanted to put in running stores, so we decided to go to three and see how different their shoe advice would be. To my surprise, between 3 humans and 1 computer everyone agreed on what type of shoe I needed. The people at Run On! seemed to care more about running and us than just the shoes they were trying to sell us. Mitch, Michele, and Lauren seemed so enthused by running that it was contagious, and without looking down on us for our weight and lack of experience.
On May 1, 2011 Amy and I ran the Schlotzky’s Bun Run 5k in Austin. It was her 1st 5k, and my first in a decade. From there, I took the Run On! 301 class with the Too Hot To Handle 15k goal race. Then I took the marathon class. The coaches and others doing it with me made such a difference. When it would get hard, I would remember why I was doing it. There were runs that were awesome, and there were runs that I showed up and finished, just because I was scared of that slippery slope that leads to quitting if I missed 1. The coaches were awesome, running extra mileage with me since my goal race was 2 weeks before the class goal race.
On October 29th I ran my first marathon coming in just under my secret goal of 5 ½ hours. What a difference 8 months can make with a reason, a goal, and the right resources! Now that we have completed the Chosen and our adoption, I still want to get in better shape, lose weight, and be able to keep up with my kids. I want to work to get faster. I feel like I am running for my life and my family.
That is why I run.
|
Our Staff 
