Running...again?

View from after my run -- gorgeous!

It's not breaking news that I absolutely love to run. I began running back in '06 when my office was challenged by one of our own campaigns, "Active for Life." We all set goals to be more active than we currently were. I set a goal to go for walks on the nights after work when I didn't have late meetings. After walking around the neighborhood, I got a little bored and picked up the pace to a very slow job. I could only run about 2 blocks before heaving over out of breath and feeling like I was going to die. So there became a bigger challenge. Each day I would try to run a little further and think I probably got to about a mile. One of my colleagues then challenged me to run a 5K with her later that month. I remember fueling up on carbs, drinking tons of water and being in bed before 10:00 for my "big" race. That next morning I couldn't believe I could run all 3.1 miles.

After that first race, I registered for plenty more. One year I ran the Turkey Trot which was either a 5 or 8k on Thanksgiving morning. I remember it ended up being the first snowfall of the year that morning which was so serene. My other favorite has always been the Women's Race which is in July up near Montrose. I ran my first half marathon in January '08 in Phoenix, AZ and then attempted training for the marathon later that year but came out with an injury instead which led to terrible, excruciating back pain. I've attempted to train for a half marathon since then but always come out injured.

This past week I was able to get two runs in and feel GREAT. I ran a mile and a half the first day and then 2 miles a couple days ago which I thought was pretty impressive for not running for the past several months. We'll see how long this will last, I am hoping to run the ALS Run at US Cellular on July 12. If not that it'd just be nice to get a couple 3-4 mile runs in every week. I just can't give up on this love just yet. There's nothing like running along the bike path in Chicago and I want to get as much time along there as I can before we move!