{"id":276,"date":"2010-03-08T15:45:19","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T20:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ebay-bride.perception.net\/?p=276"},"modified":"2010-03-08T21:54:14","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T02:54:14","slug":"nothing-worth-having-comes-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebay-bride.perception.net\/?p=276","title":{"rendered":"Nothing worth having comes easy"},"content":{"rendered":"

(or: Why Resting on your Laurels only merits Big Fat Laurels<\/em>)
\n 
\nThis past week I began training for a 10km race<\/a>. No, really. I did. And, while this has nothing to do per se with weddings, it has to do with me and my personal fitness level and well-being. And, since I\u2019m getting married & this is my blog, it has to do with weddings (not a bad reach, eh?<\/em>)
\n 
\n

<\/a>

Run for the Cure 2009: the Sequel. It wasn\u2019t official. It wasn\u2019t fast. But it did garner my PR thus far: 5km in 35 minutes. And, YES, I\u2019m damn proud.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

 
\nMy \u2018career\u2019 (and I couldn\u2019t use that word more loosely<\/em>) began 2 years ago when I decided for some ungodly reason that I was going to run a 5K. I chose the CIBC Run for the Cure<\/a> and then set about trying to run. Easier said than done for a zaftig girl who couldn\u2019t run for longer than 30 seconds without getting winded & nearly crippling herself. Enter: the Couch to 5k<\/a>. This program changed my life. For real. I\u2019ve said that countless times in the past (most often in jest<\/em>) but when I say it now, I couldn\u2019t be more earnest. I’m really not sure what prompted the notion to try running. Whatever the impetus was, though, I’m grateful for it. And Robert Ullrey gets a huge virtual High Five for putting together & posting the free podcast<\/a> (that still lives on my iPod to this day, actually<\/em>) I used to make it through without serious injury or hospitalization.
\n 
\nI went from sucking serious wind after 30 seconds of running to completing a full 5km run all in one go. I ran slowly (still do<\/em>) but make no mistakes, I RAN the full distance. No walksies.
\n 
\nThat was in October of 2008. What did I do during the off-season of that year (winter 2008\/09), after such a remarkable breakthrough, you may ask? Nothing. Nada. Yep. I sat on my arse and watched it expand. I also, effectively, put myself back at ground zero. All that sweating and panting to be able to run 5km and I sat on my laurels and let it all go to seed. So when the running season of 2009 rolled around (and I thought I\u2019d be right where I left off), I was rudely thumped back to reality when I could barely make it through a St. Paddy\u2019s Day 5km Run (there were walksies.<\/em>)
\n 
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n~ I Run Because I Can<\/strong>
\n 
\nIt\u2019s an adage I\u2019ve seen on T-shirts and read countless times in Runner\u2019s World Magazine<\/a>. At first it didn\u2019t mean much to me, beyond a bit of wanky power-of-positive-thinking self- aggrandizement. But, then last March, I took part in the Achilles St. Patty\u2019s Day<\/a> 5km run and had the full scope of that statement demonstrated for me in living colour.
\n 
\nThe Achilles Run<\/a> is an annual event that raises funds for physically challenged runners. Now, I\u2019d known about deaf or blind runners running with guides in order to stay on course. But I had NO idea the tenacity and spirit that was embodied in some of the other athletes who benefited from this organization. As per their website<\/a>, they welcome runners with \u201c\u2026cerebral palsy, paraplegia, arthritis, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, amputation, cystic fibrosis, or those who suffer from stroke, cancer, traumatic head injury, and many others.\u201d Pretty much quashes any \u201coh, but I\u2019m too old, fat, (insert excuse here<\/em>)\u201d whining any of us can come up with, doesn\u2019t it?
\n 
\nI\u2019d been feeling pretty sorry for myself and the slowness with which I crossed the finish line (really, what did I expect, I barely ran at ALL for months<\/em>), but when I was passed by a runner<\/a> with no feet (yes, you read correctly: No Feet<\/em>) I knew that there really was no excuse I could come up with that would hold any amount of water. Granted, that epiphany didn\u2019t quite hit me immediately. It took a few more runs followed by some pretty whiny, self-indulgent self-pitying because my thinner and more fit girlfriends were finishing with far better times than I. Well, of COURSE they were! They\u2019re in better shape and they trained harder. Duh!
\n 
\nThen I figured out the Zen of Running. No great spiritual realization hit. I simply (and finally<\/em>) figured out & eliminated the stressor that seemed to follow me on every single run: Time. If I ran at a pace even 2 seconds slower on Monday than I had on Saturday, I beat myself up over it\u2026 for days. Where\u2019s the enjoyment in that? Well, exactly – there wasn\u2019t any. So I started running and leaving my watch at home. And guess what? I started to LOVE running. Do I still care about times? Well, sure \u2013 who doesn\u2019t want to improve upon something they enjoy. I just don\u2019t obsess over it anymore. Battles are meant to be chosen carefully. You pick one all willy nilly and you will<\/strong> have your ass handed to you. I spent the majority of my life excelling in the art of couch potato-ing. So I know that, in order for me to succeed at running in any capacity, it needs to be done in tiny, wee baby steps. I can only win one battle at a time. And that\u2019s fine by me.
\n 
\nRight now \u2013 I can run 5km and not die. That, in and of itself, is pretty impressive considering my starting ground. I have a respectable number of 5km finishes under my belt and I\u2019m proud of each and every one. Now the prize I\u2019m eyeing is crossing a 10km finish line. I don\u2019t expect it to be fast. I don\u2019t expect it to be easy. But I do expect to do it with a metric tonne of pride.
\n 
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(or: Why Resting on your Laurels only merits Big Fat Laurels)   This past week I began training for a 10km race. No, really. I did. And, while this has nothing to do per se with weddings, it has to do with me and my personal fitness level and well-being. And, since I\u2019m getting married […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[53,52,54,57,56,55,58,51],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fab","tag-achilles-organization","tag-achilles-st-patricks-day-5k","tag-couch-to-5k","tag-podcast","tag-robert-ullrey","tag-run-for-the-cure","tag-runners-world-magazine","tag-sporting-life-10k"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebay-bride.perception.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebay-bride.perception.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebay-bride.perception.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebay-bride.perception.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebay-bride.perception.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"https:\/\/ebay-bride.perception.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"https:\/\/ebay-bride.perception.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebay-bride.perception.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebay-bride.perception.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebay-bride.perception.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}