Starting the Process of Progress

(Written Saturday, September 29, 2012)

Today is the last Saturday for the next 4-ish months that I won't get up early. To RUN. Say what? Who gets up at 6am on a Saturday after working a full week to do anything other than pee and go BACK TO BED? Me. I will. Because I have decided that on January 20th, 2013, I will run 13.1 miles. And apparently that's not something you just decide to go do. There is training. Much, much training.

Darla gave me my training schedule this week. At first, no big deal. 3 miles here, 4 miles there. I haven't done that too consistently, but I CAN do it. I just haven't. And then December arrives, and there's one week where I will run a total of 23 miles. Twenty. Three. MILES. And that week just so happens to be the week of Christmas. I will celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus not in my usual way of drinking a lot of wine and eating everything I can get my hands on (emphasize “a lot” and “everything”), mixed with feeling sentimental for the passage of time and days gone by, but by running 23 miles. Hey, cool!

It doesn't make sense. Why would I choose this? I have never been a very athletic person, or someone who really even sets goals. But maybe that's the reason. I NEED this. Like a kid that's a behavior problem in high school needs the Army. I need to learn the discipline to do something that no one is expecting me to do, or even cares if I do it or not. This is not a natural next step, like college after high school or babies after marriage. This is something completely unnecessary, but it's for ME. And I have to do it. HAVE TO. In my spirit.

I plan to journal my progress here, because I know that it will not only be progress, but a process. I know I'm not the first one to run a race, there is nothing notable for the world about me doing this. But I have a feeling it will change my world.