Sunday, March 6, 2011

The Heart Is Willing

A week ago, I finally had a few minutes to go on my first run in 10 months. I knew it wasn't going to be easy-peasy, but I feel free when I run and freedom is something I haven't experienced a whole lot of lately.

So it was with joy that I lovingly tied my kicks and bounced out the door. I felt light and sort-of fast and fantastically normal. I did my usual left-turn at the bottom of the driveway, elated that this was finally happening! I had looked forward to this moment ever since Annie arrived (really, I thought about running while I was in the hospital), so I was thrilled I felt so great.

20 yards...fine and fancy. 40 yards...hmm. 50 yards...oh boy. 100 yards...good golly this is going to be horrible. So with my triplet apron flapping and my hiney-baby flopping I old-lady-shuffled through the next mile, praying that the cracks in the sidewalks wouldn't trip me up.

The maddening part is that my problem is purely muscular weakness, made worse by the 10+ lbs I need to shed. The heart and lungs are fine. The mind is still competitive and prideful enough that I refused to walk.

It's the rest of me that made my first run of 2011 so ghastly.

Baby steps. More like baby crawling. Without the spit-up and drool.

2 comments:

Mary said...

I'm glad you were able to run!!!

Did I tell you I crazily signed up to do a 1/2 marathon in October? I did one 7 years ago. And I'm not a runner, so it was a run walk combo dealy bob. But I committed to this one, so I need to get started running!!!

Some how I don't think the group active classes I've been taking will properly train me ;-)

Emmie said...

That's not giving me much hope for my first run of 2011!