And it begins

For many years now I've been telling myself I should start running. I'm fairly certain that just about all couch potatoes run (heh - how punny of me) that little mantra through their heads at one point or another, so I'm hardly in bad company in that respect.

I also put "start running" and "participate in a race" on my 101 things list, and well, again with the punny, one could argue that I'm running out of time, with only about 8 months left to complete my remaining tasks.

Luckily the goal is being helped by the fact that I've been in a relationship with a marathoner for the past 7 months, and the fact that I (perhaps stupidly), replied with a "Sure, uh-huh" when he suggested that we run the NYC marathon in November.

I went through a phase in August in which I ran about 2km every other day for a couple of weeks (in ridiculously grossly hot weather - August in Israel, anyone?), followed by a month long vacation in Toronto in which I ran a sum total of once (on my first day there), which pretty much put an end to my running streak.

In October I went to Palma de Mallorca to meet up with my boyfriend (he lives in Munich) and to cheer him along for the TUI Marathon. He ran a rather slow (for him) race of 3:45 and change. I lounged in the sun waiting about for 3:45 and change and came out of it sick as a dog while he didn't seem much worse for the wear.

Right after Christmas he came for a visit and we planned on going to the running store to have my stride analyzed and buy new shoes. I picked up the new shoes this past Tuesday and we went for a 2km run, along the same path we ran back in August. I barely got through it, had to stop to walk a few times and wanted very much to die.

The following day we went up north to stay at a swank cottage. The place where we stayed is very small, with a perimeter road of about 1km. We ran it once, at which point I retired, and M continued for another round. He didn't want to exhaust himself or anything, what with the Tiberias Marathon being the following morning (the purpose of our trip).

So, the next day it was up early and out for a lovely drive towards the Sea of Galilee, followed by a light breakfast. We arrived at the starting point, and M took off along with 853 other marathoners. He came in at 3:30:36, and I became more and more motivated to get my ass in gear.

And thus, ass firmly in gear, I dropped him off at the airport yesterday (where he ended up being stuck for 6 hours because of stupid Lufthansa - Yay for being stuck in an airport in the holy land on a Friday, with no open shops!), came home, got on my running gear and went out (in the rain!) for the usual 2km route.

I'm not actually sure that the route is 2km, but that is what M estimates it to be. It is for the most part either straight or up hill and yesterday I finished it in 16:26 without stopping at all. Today I ran it again (in the rain!) and even though I was feeling much worse and was sure I was going much slower, finished it in 15:09, having slowed to a walk crossing the street at the top of the hill.

So, yay, IT begins. Next step is to get a pedometer (on its way to me, actually) and to try to run a little bit further. I hope to be able to participate in a 5k race sometime in February.