I am so not a runner

I am so not a runner and I have never considered myself one. I remember having to run the mile in high school and I could never ever run the entire thing; I could barely run a small stretch of it. Running was just not my thing and I was just not an athletic person. It has taken me years so that I can run at a decent pace and I am still pretty slow at running. It was in boot camp last year that really taught me to better appreciate how running could be effective exercise. I probably will never run a marathon, but I have run several 5Ks and now I have less than a month to train for a 10K!

In boot camp, one of our monthly assessments was to run a timed mile. I remember when I first started I thought I was going to die running a mile. My mile run time was awful!! I considered myself in decent shape but I was not a runner. I went to the gym regularly and did a lot of high impact step classes but running was not something I liked to do. I was pretty stagnant in my exercise routine and not seeing a lot of results and with the wedding approaching, it was time to jump start my workout routine and boot camp definitely did that for me. Over several months of boot camp, there was dramatic improvement in my mile time as well as my strength and endurance. There was improvement each month and just before our wedding last May my mile time was under 10 minutes, which is the best time of my entire life. For the Race for the Cure and because I was training for the tri-fitness competition, I started running again and although I haven't been able to run a mile in under 10 minutes again, I am running about a 11 minute mile and I am happy about that. I think that is my happy pace. For me it is the fact that I am able to run an entire mile and have started to enjoy running that is pretty awesome. I've come a long way since high school.

So the 10K is fast approaching and I have to build my endurance and get my butt into gear. I slacked off last week because I was at a conference and wasn't feeling so great (I know too many excuses), so this week I will have to get serious. The good thing is I am not doing this alone, my co-worker is doing this with me. It will be nice to have a partner to train with. I usually workout and train on my own for the most part. I haven't been able to manipulate, I mean talk anyone into working out with me until now. :) We will have our first run together this week, I'm a little nervous since I don't know how fast she runs and I just hope I won't be keeping her back.