Background (6/15): Running? and C25K

  In September of 2011, my friend Scott asked if I wanted to run a 5K race along with him and his girlfriend, Natalia. I’d met Scott in Chicago in the months directly leading up to the moments when I initiated my health and lifestyle change. He knew how important it had become to me, and it's very possible I told him I was unhappy about hitting another rut in weight loss progress. Considering the opportunity, though apprehensive for a few moments, I realized there were about two months until the race – which would have been the correct timeframe to try out the Couch to 5K program that I’d heard about from Mary. I remembered her telling that, although she’d barely been able to get around, much less run, at the start of the program, by sticking to it, she got successfully moving.

With that slight comfort in mind, I agreed to run the Chicago Hot Chocolate 5K in early November, with the goal of simply finishing. I researched the C25K program and I committed to finishing it on time and taking it seriously. I got down to business in mid-September, or more accurately, I tried to.

The first morning of “running” on the C25K program, after working a full night at the hotel, felt terrible. I could barely huff it out for 30 seconds before I felt like my heart would explode, and I had to do nine more intervals. Running on concrete felt nothing like running on an elliptical – so much tougher. Wth the race looming, I continued, since I didn’t have much choice.

Worse, my feet and legs absolutely killed afterward – I could barely walk. Active friends, including Steve, and Adam and Lauren, two runner friends in Chicago who absolutely supported my decision to start training, ordered me to buy new shoes, that day. As a cheapskate, I had used the same $35 cross-training shoes that I’d had for about a year already. I made my way over to Fleet Feet and threw down for the most expensive pair of non-dress shoes I’d bought in my life, a pair of Brooks GTS 11 Adrenalines, just based off the salesman’s recommendations. I was very lucky that I didn’t get ripped off, since whatever he would have suggested, I would’ve bought like a sucker. Paying $100 for shoes felt more than slightly ridiculous, but if it would let me walk normally after jogging, well, it was just money. To my extreme relief, Lauren later said she owned the same pair of shoes.

The C25K program got easier, though it never felt outright easy. Luckily, I lived in an area of Chicago, Logan Square, well-suited for very short runs – lots of tree-lined boulevards and side streets that I could run through without stopping for traffic. Running after work made the most sense to me, since doing it beforehand would mean I’d have to stand for eight hours after smashing my legs up. When I tried, that did not turn out well, nearly passing out on my colleague a few times. Running in the mornings, sometime between 8-12 hours after waking up, was the way to go. I put my social life more or less on hold to complete the program, but still squeezed enough activities in to not go nuts. I had a decent start on overall activity due to being a kind-of-frequenter of the gym, so it got easier and faster, once over the first hurdle. I was able to complete the C25K in about six weeks, as opposed to the prescribed nine. Suddenly, my goal went from simply finishing to actually doing decently in the run. That was a bit of a shock.

Still, I didn’t see myself taking up running as more than a casual thing. I went to support Lauren as she ran the Chicago Marathon (and left before seeing her – I failed to consider her starting corral and pace) and marveled. I thought I could never attempt anything longer than a 5K.