About two years ago, I started to seriously try to lose
weight. I was overweight and really in a
bad place health wise. I realized that
if I didn’t change some things, I might very well be in the same spot my
father-in-law was in—open heart surgery, a severe stroke and having to have
someone take care of me day and night because I wasn’t able to take care of
myself.
I had been going to the gym for several years before this and
I hadn’t really been making any gains. We started a “Biggest Looser” type
contest at work and I got serious about it.
At the same time my wife, Laura, started Weight Watchers. I started listening to what she was bringing
home from her meetings and began to track my points and really try to learn
about nutrition and the food I was putting in my body. At the
end of 2011, I had lost 90 pounds and was a new person. I changed gyms and really started focusing on
getting healthy and not just weight loss.
I set myself a new goal in January of 2012—I was going to
run a 5K in the spring or summer. Every
other weekend after that, I was in the gym running a 5K, and three days a week I was
running two miles on a treadmill.
I was pumped! I was knocking back
the miles with a steady heart rate and feeling good!
Today I woke up and realized that a trip to the gym would not work in our schedule, so I decided to do something I had been thinking about for awhile…running on the road. So I set off on my run to the Community Park and back. I learned some things about road running that I never expected while running on my nice, comfy treadmill at the gym. I’d like to share them with you:
The road does not
bounce. Ever notice how the
treadmill gives just a little bit when your foot comes down? Not a whole lot, just enough bounce to make
you feel like you are hurtling through space.
After a block or two, I realized this pavement wasn’t given me that same
feeling. In fact, it wasn’t helping me at
all and I think it may have been fighting me…I’m not sure but I think it was
resisting every step I was taking.
Dogs are everywhere. I had no idea the number of dogs that are in
my neighborhood. The nice friendly
greetings from the neighbor’s pooch as you’re driving comfortably down the road
are quite different when you are running in front of their house. They all sound like Cujo. I swear that I head
the heavy breathing of a rabid St. Bernard bounding down on me. On second thought, maybe that was my
breathing I heard.
Road kill. As disgusting as road kill looks from your
driver seat, it is about 100 times worse when your foot lands right next to
that dead possum’s eye. It wouldn’t have
been so bad if the eye hadn’t been hanging out of it socket staring at me as I
ran by. I will be seeing the eyeball in
my dreams tonight, I just know it.
Wind. What starts out as a nice, cool breeze at
your back soon turns into a wall of total resistance when you turn the
corner. Remember when you were a kid and
your dad or your uncle would be standing there and you would run towards
them? While you were running towards
them, they would put the palm of their hand right on your forehead. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t
get any closer to them? That’s what I
learned running into the wind is like. I
turned the corner and it felt like those 90 pounds I lost last year had came
back all at once! S-L-O-W-M-O-T-I-O-N!
Cars. Thirty five miles per hour doesn’t seem very
fast at all when you are behind the wheel of a car. When you are running on the side of the road
and a car blows past you at 35, it scares the water right out of you. Who knew cars in Franklin where all stealth
cars? I never heard one sneaking up
behind me! It’s like they tip toed until
they got close to me and then just gunned it!
The only one I heard was the old farm truck that sounded like someone
had poured marbles down its manifold. I
heard that truck rumbling and I went all cross country, like I was John Rambo
or something. It was awesome.
Time. Time has no meaning to those not
running. I staggered charged
triumphantly into the house and my adoring, supportive wife says “that didn’t
take long.” Between gasping for breaths
and trying to determine if I should just collapse on the floor or aim for the
couch, I told her “I (gasp) ran (gasp) to (gasp) the park (gasp, gasp) and
back.” Twenty five minutes on the
treadmill goes by pretty fast…25 minutes on the open road is FOREVER.
Old People. Don’t get me wrong, I love senior
citizens. I think they deserve and are
entitled to respect and honor. They don’t
understand that when you are running past their beauty parlor on a Saturday
morning with sweat streaming down your face, you’re not really going to stop
and talk about the weather. So, the
sweet Grandma, that said “Good morning, beautiful day for a walk,” Yes, it is a
beautiful day, but if it comes to breathing or talking, I’m going to choose
breathing every time. Thanks anyway and
please forgive my rudeness.
I learned a lot this morning. Am I ready to face a 5K on the open
road? Probably not, but you know
what? I ran this morning. Two years ago, I’d still be on the couch
trying to figure out why I was still fat.
I made a choice to change my life and I did it. What do you need to choose to change
today?
