Penguin in the House

May 17, 2008

I know...it's about time I actually got around to making a post here!! I have officially begun training for the Nike Marathon (10.19.08) with Team in Training, so now is as good a time as any to start writing.

This morning we met at the crack of dawn - 8:00 am - over at MIT. My hubby drove me over and waited for me in the car for over 2 hours. What a guy! The first 1.25 hours was a shoe and clothing clinic with a rep from Marathon Sports. I've been fitted there and actually just bought another new pair of shoes the other day, and I have plenty of non-cotton running clothes. Finally, around 9:20 we headed outside to do our 2 mile run.

And, that's where the title of this post comes in. I am a serious penguin when I run, because I am damn slow. We took off, and almost eveyone passed Andrea within the first few minutes. You know what though - I don't care. I run for me and yes, I run slowly, but by golly I CAN run. It's hard to believe that 20 months ago I weighed 300 lbs and couldn't even walk up a flight of stairs. (Go here if you're interested in my weight loss story).


So, I ran. I ran over the Mass Ave bridge and down the ramp to the Esplanade, and I ran until I reached the spot where the TNT folks were there waiting for the turnaround. I turned and ran back to the ramp, ran up the ramp, back over the bridge all the way to the MIT building we started from. I RAN the whole thing. My Garmin said I actually ran 2.11 miles - without stopping!! Even better, I felt great. I am officially labeling myself a penguin though!

I plan on tracking my training over the next 5 months with this blog, so feel free to stop on by and see how I'm doing. I'm going to need all the help I can get!!