They say starting is the hardest part. I think that's true. When I joined Punch Gym the hardest part was finding the courage to walk through the front door. Today, getting out of the car to meet these runners was an intense moment for me. Not just the scary fog, but just that moment of pure panic. Can I do this? Should I do this? What the hell is wrong with me? I'm not a runner...why am I here?! These people don't know me, I could drive away and they would never know the difference.
Except for Rachel. Thank God for Rachel, seriously having a friendly face expecting you makes all the difference in the world. Rachel goes to the gym with me, but I didn't meet her until the Fairfield 5k when she graciously let me run/walk with her the whole way.
So after pushing away all those negative thoughts, and seeing Rachel, I finally got out of my car. After introductions were made, we just started running. We ran 3 min, walk 1 minute for the majority of the 3 miles. The other runners in our group were "real" runners. I started to immediately get worried about holding them back because I'm slow...but again my pre conceived notions were wrong. At one point the coach Brian started running back towards us. I said are we turning around? Rachel says "no silly, he is just running with us". For the entire 3 miles the whole group ran together, the faster people would run head, then loop back around to make sure we were ok and so we all stuck together. I was super impressed.
Everyone was so nice too! No judging and so incredibly helpful and pleasent. I thought these experienced runners would get annoyed at me being so slow, bur again I was proved wrong.
When we were done and back at the cars the coach Brian gave Rachel and I purple Team In Training shirts. I was definetly sucking wind, and happy to be done, but this was a nice little surprise. And then the best part...."so you guys coming to the diner?!"
Hell Yes!!! I love diners and food!! They go every Sunday, which is incentive enough for me!! While eating I found out these runners were experienced beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Numerous half marathons, marathons, triatholons, and ironmans for all of them! I was sitting there with my bacon and eggs and all I could think about was how these are the people I need more of in my life.
I am so very excited about this new journey. I am still not very good at running, but I'm getting there. Surrounding myself with aTeam in Training people is exactly what I needed to do to start this next adventure :)
Thank for reading and taking an interest in my life :) Please consider donating to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society here ---> http://pages.teamintraining.org/ct/halfnyc13/kerrychomas
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