Time to Run -- A Season for Every Activity

Until my recent training, the one and only time I ever ran was in 1970.  In the spring of my freshman year of college the school was hosting a 5K race.  I do not remember the cause we ran for, I simply remember one day Peg and I looked at each other and said, "Let's do it!"

Prior to college we were both Girl Scouts throughout our school days.  While we'd camped out, sold cookies, earned badges, filled a cabin's wood stove to keep warm in a January blizzard for three days, and mastered First Aid, we were both pretty much devoid of any athletic experiences.  While active in school with band, orchestra, a singing group, piano accompanying, foreign exchange students, and even 4-H for a time, still no athletic activities.  

Athletic events were things that we watched. The boys performed and the girls cheered them on.

Then one spring day in 1970 western New York farmland, we found ourselves running country roads for three miles with the exuberance and naivety of youth.  No one had mentioned to us what it might feel like to run all out for three miles for the first time ever.  And so, we did!

Along with that exuberance and naivety, youth provided us with fairly healthy, strong bodies and we found ourselves slowing down a bit tired at the end (ok, maybe a little nauseous too), but mostly thrilled at our accomplishment. 

It wasn't till later that evening when our legs felt like jello, buckling underneath us when we tried to stand, that we realized there was a cost to our all-out efforts.  However, friends, fooling around and all those wonderfully distracting college pastimes overshadowed any discomfort.

We moved on, satisfied with our first and our last athletic event.

Or so we thought.

Ten years ago Peg decided she would run a marathon at age fifty.  Indeed, she trained properly and finished the Chicago Marathon feeling great!

We climbed a mountain together last October, and this is my year to master stair climbing in tower races.

Our third partner from freshman year in college, who missed the 5K?  Kathy called Sunday to tell about a first for her--she's registered to participate in Pennsylvania's Megatransect Challenge on September 29th--a 26 mile hike and trail run which includes mountainous rock scrambling over "Rattlesnake Ridge."  https://ultrahike.com/About_the_Mega.html

You go Kath! 

There is "...a season for every activity under the heavens."

Eating lite today!

Tuesday January 17th

Meals:

--1 Perfect medium-boiled Egg, Ezekiel sprouted grain raisin-bread Toast, no butter

--1 small Chicken Noodle Soup (80 calories), two small slices from a whole grain baguette

   with garlic mustard, low sodium turkey and a Polish pickle.

--Pomegranate Juice with carbonated water, 1 tangerine and 7 Brazil nuts.

Workouts:

1 hr. Pilates solo session

45 minutes cardio, stretching