I know most of my 'friends' are active runners, this is not for them...
I am not a world class athlete. Heck, I barely qualify for the term athlete. Nah I don't even barely qualify. On the other hand, I am NOT a sob story. You know those stories, a guy has a heart attack runs a triathlon, or a woman loses her leg and does an Iron Man. I am not those people.
I am a Regular Joe. 9 months ago I was a couch potato. I weighed close to 200 pounds and did not like climbing a single flight of stairs. Like most of you I have loved ones whom I know would miss me. In other words, a Regular Joe.
Then I found an incentive, as if loving family was not enough- it wasn't sorry. I found an incredible organization that I felt a need to do something for. They helped my son grow so much I needed to pay it back. One of their major fundraisers is running in the ING Miami (half)-marathon, as most of you are aware since I bugged you all to sponsor me and I appreciate the fantastic donations made on my behalf.
I decided to run the 13.1 miles. I don't know if I was more nervous about raising the funds or collapsing on the street from exhaustion. When I first thought about it I decided I could do it in about 4 and a half hours to not embarrass myself- I was thinking it would take closer to 5-6 hours. To put this in context if you use Google to map walking directions they pace it at 3 miles/hour- which would get you 13.1 miles in 4 hours 22 half minutes. Yes I know 13.1 miles is very very far. Believe me I know.
I started training last August and soon discovered I could do 4 miles/hour somewhat easily. This would allow me to finish in a 'mere' 3 hours 16 and a half minutes, if I could keep it up that long. Over the following 5 months I ran, jogged and walked almost every day increasing my stamina. Suddenly I wanted to do it in 3 hours. Boy oh boy from 5 hours down to 3 in just a few months. Guess what ladies and gentlemen, I did it in 2 hours 59 minutes and 39 seconds. That is 4.4 miles/hour. Let's compare that to 'real' runners. A world class runner can do a half marathon in 1 and a quarter hours. THAT'S 11 MILES/HOUR. Most runners will do it under 2 hours and I finished ahead of about 10-15% of the field.
Next time, I hope to cut my time down by half an hour and finish in 2 and a half hours, that's 5.24 miles/hour.
What's my point you ask? Simple... As a great poster from the ING Miami Marathon said " No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch. Get up and run. It has its own natural high and it is an incredible way of giving back to your community while lapping everybody that is still on the couch.
