Background Info

Hi! How exciting to be starting a blog! Beverly - also known as Beev - and I decided to keep this blog over the next several months to record our progress as we train to run a half-marathon in November 2009. You see, I volunteered this year at the San Antonio Rock-n-Roll Marathon (& half - marathon). I handed out water as the runners came by our water station. It was fun to volunteer and it inspired me to try it myself. I talked with Beev about it and she got excited about it too! So, we decided we should start training for the half-marathon in 2009.

Thankfully, Beev is patient and encouraging! I have never run before and I quickly found out that it is entirely different than any other cardio type exercise I've done before. I call what I do running...it feels like running and I guess it's running...but I started very slowly. Poor Beev would have to jog in place waiting for to catch up. Beev also tells stories while we're running which really helps me to not concentrate on how far and long we're running. I just listen to her talk and talk and talk. During the first few runs, I couldn't even talk back because I was so out of breath. I would just grunt or say "yeah" or "oh" or "yes" or "no" - anything that only took one breath to say. She also encourages me up the hills by saying "we can do it! or we're almost at the top! or something else similar. I have become faster as we have been running together and I can talk now while we're running (although it's still pretty much a one-sided conversation towards the end of our run).

I started running in my neighborhood a few months ago. My goal at that time was to run for 30 seconds without stopping. I would increase it everytime and eventually got up to a mile - which was taking about 15 mins - told you I was slow! Then Beev and I started running together on some trails at work. We got up to 2 miles and then this week we got up to 3 miles! And the pace has quickened a bit too.

We'll both be making posts to this blog. We have our first race this Saturday - the Reindeer Run 5K. Our goal is to run without stopping (Beev can already do it, but it will be a challenge for me!).

Perry