Fat guy running club...

So I'd been toying with an idea for a while.

In high school, sports was a regular part of my life. Even in college, sports was still a regular part of my life as I continued to lift weights and play basketball regularly. But since being in ministry for the past 10 years, I haven't had a regular "sports fix."

So I had been thinking about taking up running. But I had never done it. (My sister has... she was a great cross country running in high school and continues to run and is 'way' fast!)

So I'd been seriously thinking about it for the past couple of years. But the timing was never right. Finally this summer, I thought "if it's going to happen, there's no better time than now."

So I started (August 8).

I started with a goal in mind. Last year when our students were in the Dominican Republic for our missions trip, there was a 10k happening that weekend. So I thought, "I'll get myself ready and if that 10k is that same weekend as last year, then I'll be ready to run it." So that's what I'm working toward.

But I thought that a 10k race shouldn't be my first race. So I decided to run the Naperville Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving 5k.

So I've been working on this goal for the 8 weeks. I haven't blogged out it, even though it's been showing up on my twitter feed. (Basically I didn't blog it in case it didn't work out and then I wouldn't have looked like a failure.)

But the experience has been anything but that.

Today was my final day of my initial running training cycle. I was amazed that I ran 30 minutes without stopped. (Pretty good for a guy who has been noted to 'run to the fridge, but walk back.') And actually when I looked my mileage, I ran 3 miles without stopping. That amazed me more than 30 minutes!!!!

So, next week I start on my 5k training cycle. Although I'm a couple of weeks further along than I thought I was. My 5k will be on Thanksgiving 7 weeks from now. And I'm hoping that my 10k will be on March 28th, 2010.

Where we go from there... who knows... But I am starting to enjoy it. Today, for the first time, I think that I experienced what some refer to as "runner's high." That was exciting.

If you are running and tracking your runs with Nike+, which I am, you can follow me HERE and I can follow you too.

I'm now a part of the "Fat Guy's Running Club." And if there isn't one, maybe I'll be it's first member and President. Plus, the added benefit is that I've lost 20 pounds too!

Jim

P.S.: I figured you would enjoy that picture Steve.