How It All Started



Spewage

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How to Start Running At An Advanced Age (or, How This Madness All Began)

I never ran in my life. Ever. The only time I ran was twice a year for 1.5 miles (Navy mandated physical readiness test) until my selection to Chief Petty Officer. I was 42 at the time.

Now, I had been doing some pretty serious weight-lifting for about 10 years, but only minimal cardio. You know, enough to prove I still had a heartbeat, but not much else. Running? Ha! Hated it, hated it, hated it.

Then I was selected to CPO in July 2003. The training process included PT (physical training). OK, that's cool. But the PT included running. A lot of it. In a formation. While yelling all the way. Aaarrrgh!

Oh, it was painful. It sucked. It really, really, really sucked. Getting up for 5:00am PT wasn't the bad part. Running (at ANY time) was the bad part. Did I mention that it sucked? [Note: I very deliberately use the word "suck" here. Nothing else quite captures how truly wretched this was for me.]

I kept my mouth shut and gutted it out. It was clear that I would have to devote a decent amount of personal time gutting it out, too. I mapped out several routes around the neighborhood of varying mileages, and started out simply trying to finish at more than a trudge. Sometimes, however, it wasn't much more than a shuffle. I know there were people who drove by, saw me, and thought, "How sad, that person is really struggling to remain upright. Wonder if we should stop and render aid?"

Over time, the amount of suckage finally begin to diminish. Not much, but a little. I survived CPO training, got pinned, and was officially released from 5:00am formation running.

However, it really got under my skin that running was sooooo hard for me. I really got rather pissed off! I was by far stronger and better built than most women my age, but running just totally kicked my butt, hard. This should not be so difficult! KIDS run all over the place, effortlessly! Why was this so incredibly awful for me? By the time I was pinned, it was tolerable, but still very difficult. I vowed that I would not stop running, because I did not ever want to go through that hell again. And it made me mad that I couldn't tackle this thing quickly and easily.

So I kept running.

With the encouragement of an equally crazy friend down in Florida, I kept increasing the distance. She was also new to running, so we suffered together via telephone. She had been a sympathetic ear during the summer trauma of my CPO training, and had taken it as a challenge for herself as well. One day I ran 6 miles and it didn't totally suck. When I called her and told her, she suggested we both sign up for our first half-marathon, in Florida, in January. OK, that was another four months out. Deal.

Six months after my first CPO training run, ML and I finished our first half-marathon, and didn't die. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't awful either. The mimosas at the finish line helped. We were both in good enough shape to do a spinning class the next day.

By then I also had a running buddy from work. This guy is nuts. He's done 24-hour SEAL challenges, adventure races, half-marathons, triathlons, you name it (R, did I leave anything out?). He was enormously encouraging from Day 1 of Hell, and still is. He coached me through my first triathlon, and we now constantly bounce ideas off each other, even though we no longer live in the same city. (I really miss racing with you, dude.)

And that's about it. Six years later, I'm still chugging along. Running, doing triathlons, drinking a lot less beer. I am living proof that A-N-Y-O-N-E can successfully complete endurance events with minimal suffering. If I can do it, anyone can, at any age.

Next step (no pun intended): Get faster!