Well, here I am approximately two months after I decided to start training for a 5K and I’m about 5 days from my first one.  I’m running the Kalamazoo Klassic on Saturday with a bunch of Jaycees and I’m getting pretty excited about it.

I’ve always been a sprinter by nature, so this whole running thing and having to slow down to find the right pace for distance has been a struggle.  But I think I’m getting it down.  Over the last three weeks, I’ve been focusing on running 3 miles at a time, but breaking it down by running 4 minutes and then walking 1 minute.  At first I was doing two minutes running and then two minutes walking and worked it up to 4 minutes and two minutes.

I’ve actually been getting to the point where I don’t breathe as heavy as I used to when I run and I’m starting to enjoy it more.  Makes me think back to that time in high school where I tried running track for about six weeks and just didn’t like it at all.  I quit to go hang with the baseball team (because I couldn’t really hit for crap).

But now that I’m starting to enjoy it (and I’m losing weight too …down to 212 lbs from a year high of 224), I sometimes get moments of regret and wonder “What could I have done if I stuck with it 20 years ago?”  Fortunately, those moments don’t stick around too long and I can get back to focus on both the upcoming 5K and the County Commission campaign race after that.

At any rate, after my run last night, I’m up to approximately 61 miles that I’ve run since I’ve started this crazy thing … who’d thunk it!