My “First” Run
Okay, so as promised, here is the account of my first run outdoors this past weekend.
Because I am training to do a 5k, I have decided from here on out that my Saturday run will be outdoors, of course weather permitting. I will be posting how my training is going every Tuesday, and hopefully give some encouragement along the way to some of you who are thinking about getting active!
Saturday morning, I get up excited. I know that I am conquering a fear today. I have a light breakfast and my morning cup of coffee, along with my arsenal of allergy meds. I take my Allegra, my Nasonex and a Trader Joe Multi-vitamin, just for good measure. Remember from yesterday’s post – my allergies have kept me from trying this for many, many years!
I found a cool website that you can map out your running, so I mapped out my first run around our local park on MyFastFeet.com. I get up to the start of my run after warming up and take off.
“Hey my new shoes feel great”, I think to myself, “I feel good about this run today, I can do it!”
Then it hits. The tightness of the chest, throat and mouth. I am only 200 feet into the run. I get very discouraged very quickly. I am telling myself, “Make it at least a mile, Cortney, make it a least a mile”. I run past the holiday Car Show that was getting set up, waving and saying “good morning”, trying to get my mind off the fact that I may vomit at any minute. I get half a mile and am slightly relieved that I am still running but a little nervous that I can’t make it a mile. I head to the path around the pond. Surely, watching the ducks, geese and boys fishing, will get my mind off the pain I am feeling in my upper body.
“I can do this,” I keep repeating.
I make it around the pond which places me just a few hundred feet short of a mile. I push myself to the mile marker and stop for a brief moment to throw up. But I made it. Yes you read right, I threw up from the pain in my chest and throat.
After taking a few moments to walk off the pain and catch my breath, I start my run again. I make it around the cars again, waving to the old men who are helping with the car show and say “good morning” to the elderly runner who has just passed me. “Mile 2 – I can do this.”
I round the pond again, when the wind picks up and the visible pollen starts swarming – the fluffy white stuff that is coming from the trees around where I leave. I run through the cloud and begin to cough and cough…and cough…until…you guessed it! I threw up again.
But I refuse to give up! I can beat this, I am already 2/3 of way through my run. I decided to run/walk the last mile, since, you know, I don’t really want to vomit again today. I make it home, and I can barely breathe. I think the look on my husband’s face was priceless and the question that followed, “Are you going to make it?” I said, “No” and grabbed some water to drink.
I DID IT! Yes, it wasn’t ideal, but I got over the hump. I fought my fear…and I won! My first run outdoors since 1996! I really did feel great. I accomplished what I set out to do and hopefully my next run outdoors will be even better…maybe only one episode of vomiting!!
I am back taking my allergy meds daily, so by next Saturday, I hope to have enough in me that I won’t have as much trouble breathing. Here are a couple of pics of my new outfit and after my run. Yes, I am going to show all of you, what I look like without makeup, 2 vomiting episodes and a 3 mile run! This is especially for Jenny and Emily from Momminitup, who have complained (more than a few times) about their pics in a previous post – but don’t worry girls this isn’t the post I promised, yours is coming in a few days!
I got back into running a little over a year ago. I found that when I worked to get back into running, I tried to run too fast from the start. Slow it down a little and you might not have the same “episodes” that you had on your run. Your time might not be as great, but as I have learned, it is more important to finish the race running strong than to beat yourself on the course and feel terrible for the rest of the day.
way to stay strong and tough it out! you are definitely motivating me.
BRAVO! Congrats to you on making it through! I hope the meds work and it’s easier next week.
way to perservere, the puking would’ve definitely stopped me.
Thanks for the link (myfastfeet.com) my husband (the runner in this family) says it ROCKS!
OM – you PUKED??? I didn’t realize it was that serious! Wow – GO YOU for running through it! And, your outfit is perfectly coordinated – even matches the blog colors
Oh, and thanks for that link on the routes. I have looked everywhere for something like that. But, now that I have a fancy schmancy iphone, I can just GPS myself and my route!!!
Congrats on your “first” run. Can I offer a small piece of advice? Last year I started running with Women Can Run Arkansas. Their main focus is running intervals-beginners to advanced. It is not as intimidating to run 3 minutes and then walk for 1 min as it is to think about running 1 mile or 3 for that matter. Since you technincally “can” run-maybe you should try running 4 or 5 minutes and then plan to walk for at least 1 minute to catch your breath and refocus. As you train, increase your running time and if you want to decrease your walking time. Last year I did 2 5Ks this way and finished with decent times. This year, I started training late, but still managed to do 2 min run/2 min walk and finish the race in 37 minutes. I know it’s not lightning fast, but since you can already run well, you can finish faster. Keep up the good work!