My Running Story:
OK….HERE.WE.GO. How did I get started running?….great question…..get a fresh cup of coffee…this may take a while to read. I ramble sometimes….ok…..all the time….good luck.
How did I get started running? So, my brother left his gas pump unattended….ran into the ice house(gas station for yall)…came out and the pump was still pumping gas…but instead of in his tank…it was all over the side of his truck and dumping on the ground. He ran to go stop it and he slipped and fell in the gas. He dislocated his leg at the knee….no one heard his scream…he couldn’t do anything except lay in the growing puddle of fuel. Eventually, he popped his knee back into socket and was able to get the fuel pump stopped. Knee swelled up like a melon. He ended up going to the doc and they said surgery. Surgery time..I knew he wouldn’t be able to drive home so I volunteered my services.
I picked him up and off we went. When we got to the hospital, the normal check-in routine happened….height…weight..etc. Welp, when it was time for the weight part…I figured since my scale wasn’t working…Id use theirs…with the nurses’ permission of course. Stepped on the scale…wowzers…3FN67. My largest number ever. Turns out my digital scale at home stopped at 350. Who knew. Anyway…felt like a POS. Here, my lil Bro is going to have surgery and I could only think about 3FN67.
So, the surgery went great…off to his house for a couple of days of ice duty and under knee pillow puffery. Chet(bro), was always a podcast listener mostly sports and self-help listening. After day one…he said…wouldnt it be cool if we ran a half-marathon together in a year. I was like yeah…your knee is jacked up and Im 3fn67…how are we going to accomplish this? He looked around on his podcast widget thingy…Then he found a C25K app…It was by NHS.
We listened to Day1 Week1 on the phone’s speaker. I said….ok…Ill give it a go.
7.4.17-Got up at 5am…before the wife and kids…got dressed…out the door I went. Drove to our local park that has a crushed gravel .4mi loop. …pressed play on the ‘cast…off I went. 5min warm up…60sec run…90 min walk….did that for about 20mins…I think…then it was a 5min cooldown. I was out of breath…shirt was soaked…South Texas summers are HOT.HOT HOT! But..it was done.
Got back to the truck…still sweating. Couldn’t keep from smiling…I was so happy with me and what my legs, lungs, and heart accomplished. When I got home…my wife, Jen was awake and I told her what I’ve done and how I felt about it. She was so excited…I had to do week1 day1 again….this time with her. My daughter-in-law and my other kids came too.
Welp…we finished the c25k program and we signed up for a race. About half the way through the program…I found out my Big Sis and her husband were doing the same thing. Guess Chet talked to them about what I was doing. I think the 7th week…the compu-lady said…it’s safe to say….im a runner….made my week.
5k day- it was hot still in Sept- nothing great really…felt great to finish something…didn’t die.
Signed up for a 10k…Rock and Roll in San Antone. There is a lot more than 6.2 Miles in that 10k. Felt like forever. But at this point…I knew I could finish. Had a couple behind Jen and I ….almost the entire way…towards the end…they thought they couldn’t finish…and they told me ..when ever they were in a low spot…ready to quit…theyd look over at us and they were inspired to finish. We finished strong…then limped the mile back to the car. Got home and signed up for a Half Marathon….without Chet.
I was in Run Mode and couldn’t stop. Austin half. Hills for miles…it was awesome. Wife, kids and Chet were there….along with my buddy…that used to run….yeah…he started running again…when he found out I was running. He was running the full…we all trained hard for this…jumping up to Austin for training runs…we ran the 1st 6mi one week and then the 2nd half(7mi) a couple weeks later. Good times…except when my buddy Doug pushed it too hard on the 2nd attempt to finish his 13mi training run….he was shaking and ended up puking out the truck window…on I35S. Heres a good tip…if someone is going to throw up at 70miles an hour…put both the driver’s window and the passenger windows down. Yeah…got a face puke spray that day.
I lost track of where I was….oh yeah…so race day….wife and kids met me at mile 6 of the race….gave me a pep in my step and a tear in my eye….I was excited to see them…and sad to run away. Got to mile 12…and I saved some energy for the evil hill that waiting for me….I looked ahead…and hey..that dude looks like my brother Chet….yeah..he escorted me up that beast of a hill. I cried a little. All downhill to the finish. Finished and got a buckle…for a half…its awesome. Probably my favorite race so far. My buddy Doug finished his Full…minutes after I finished my half(3:59:45).
Chet ended up recovering from his surgery. Completed the same C25K podcast…and we ran Salt Lake City Half together….along with my buddy Doug. My favorite moment: Running the SLC Half…I was about to get to mile 12…..Ive passed a lot of law enforcement by now….and I knew I was slow….didnt think I was anywhere near being swept off the course….but here comes a motorcycle cop…all I could think was…well…im going to have to finish this race on the sidewalks….Nope…he was just there to tell me …that he and the other officers were pulling for me and they were pround of what im doing. That was pretty FN cool.
Future goals: Im going to run a 50k. Dont know where…dont know when…but im sure Tamra Johnson will have something to do with it. Guess Ill run a marathon too…on the way.