So, I went running

Dear Blog,

When I was growing up my parents had to force me to go outside. I loved staying inside and reading, coloring and dressing my Barbie dolls. My parents would me take to the Cooper Branch Library and I would check out a minimum of 8 books and be giddy on the ride home with excitement about all of my books. Are you conjuring up a visual of what I was like as a child? Nerd? Check.

When I was 13 I had a subscription to W Magazine and sounded out all of the Italian fashion houses with a slightly southern accent. (Stay with me, I promise I'm going somewhere.)

When I was in middle school my mom would beg me to go on walks with her, I think I was a little chubby. When I decided I WOULD go, I got overheated and had to sit on the side of the road and get a ride home from a neighbor who was also my 3rd grade teacher. Embarrassing. Same thing happened when I was a cheerleader and had to run ONE LAP around the Flora soccer field. Are you getting the picture?

I was a nerdy kid, who loved fashion, and was a little chubby.

Then the day came when I put two and two together. I could not be chubby and wear the clothes in the pages of W Magazine. I had to start working out.

So, I started running. To me, it's the non-athlete's sport. You don't have to interact with anyone, you don't have to have any discernible athletic talent and if you do it long enough you can eventually become good at it. Check.

Fast forward a couple years and I've done a multitude of 5k's, 10k's, one 1/2 marathon and one full marathon. After the full marathon I swore up and down I was never doing that again. It was quite painful. Oh, and I completely stopped running and started doing yoga.

Fast forward a couple more years and I'm working for a very health conscious company with a bunch of young women who are all hyped up about running the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon and convince me to sign up too. Aaron tells me he's thinking about thinking about signing up for it as well, which in my mind means that he's signing up for it.

We start training.

I convince my friend Drew to fly in all the way from Greenville, SC to run with us!! Yay!

Race day comes. Drew, Aaron and myself get up at 4:30 AM to get downtown, to get on a shuttle, to ride to Tukwila to run 13.1 miles back to Seattle. When you put it like that doesn't it sound crazy? I think it is crazy, but anyway we signed up for it so onward. The race day was beautiful, it was in the upper 60's/low 70's and not a cloud in the sky. We ran around Lake Washington and even saw a bald eagle! That bald eagle was such a diva, he was posing for the thousands running by. There were so many out of towners running the 'thon and I must admit that I was proud of "my" city as they were stopping to take pictures in the middle of the race. Aaron and I ran together until about mile 9 when we encountered a big ass hill and this diva had to stop and walk while Aaron kept on runnnnaaanng. From that point on I was about .5 miles behind Aaron for the rest of the race but I could always see him. For those of y'all that don't know Aaron, he's 6 feet 7 inches, has ganked up knees and ankles from years of playing basketball and is not a runner. He was so serious about training for this race that he made me take it more seriously. So, for the last 4 miles of the race when I was about a half a mile behind Aaron and I would spot him just running along I was so proud of him and a big smile would cross my face. (Isn't that cheesy?!? I can't help it.)

And that my friends, is the evolution of a book worm to a bona fide runner.

The end.

xoxo,
Alison