Yikes

I talked with the HR person and I won't have health insurance til April 1. Insurance always starts on the 1st of the month, and my 60-day requirement will be here March 3. So ... I have to wait another month. That's fine, I can walk and stuff til then. Yes, I could run without insurance, but with my luck and history that's probably a bad idea. I can stay in my happy place of research mode where I read about stuff without actually having to move all that much. But I really am anxious to start training. I know how lazy/out of shape I am and a freaking marathon is rather intimiding. Plenty of time ... right?

Possible marathon buddy!

I may actually have a tentative teammate! I texted a couple people to see if they would want to maybe run the Disney marathon with me, and my brother laughed (though said he thought it was awesome I was doing it), Erin C has an ACL injury that has put her long-distance running days behind her, BUT Erin B might do it! Erin, you know you want to go to Disney with me and run a freaking long way. We can be a team! And have costumes! Or maybe I'll just have a possible costume and Erin can stand a ways away and pretend she doesn't know me, that's fine too. :-P

I found out through Facebook that John, my high school prom date, did one of the Disney races and asked him for suggestions. He definitely came through - I got a good long message back with not only tips on the Disney race itself but also words of encouragement. When he started running, he said the first mile was awful, and then the first was OK but the second was torture, but if you get through that, you'll improve and running will be really beneficial in a lot of ways. Now he really likes running and has done several races. Long races, too, not just 5Ks. Honestly, it's nice to hear someone say that it sucks at first but gets better. Based on past experience, I'm fully expecting to hate this at first.

I have yet to find out when my benefits start. However, I did walk to the library during my lunch break (a crazy day involving someone else's poo all over the women's toilet seat had me clamoring to leave the office for a bit) and got a couple running/marathon books. One of them suggested starting with 8 days of walking for 20 and 30 minutes so your legs aren't completely shocked when you start moving them at a far faster pace than that to which they are accustomed. I can do that. I can even do that in the middle of the day for my lunch hour and eat lunch at my desk while I work, which is what I usually do. In John's message, he stressed making sure you take enough time to do the beginning stages in order to avoid injury.  Actually, everything I've seen so far has stressed that. I have over 10 months, so I can definitely afford to take the needed time at the beginning.

That's about it for today. I kind of like my research phase. I feel like Hermione Granger - when in doubt, go to the library. I bet she'd be a Google queen if Hogwarts had the internet.

Going Public

When I got to work today, the first e-mail in my inbox was from one of my coworkers who's putting together a Race for the Cure team. The Global Race for the Cure is in DC on June 2, and I signed up! It's a 5K. I also told a few people at PEP about my goal to do the 2013 Disney marathon and the reaction was mostly, "Holy shit, that's a lot of miles." Also, the super athletic person said she did a 12K once and thought she was going to die, so I'm perhaps a little intimidated.

I also had a couple minutes of "Why am I doing this again?" I told people and posted the link to the blog on Facebook, so I've gotta follow through. I want to continue my streak of actually doing things that others only talk about. Lazier and more out of shape people than I have finished marathons. Still ... it's a little overwhelming and intimidating.

Speaking of intimidating, I talked with a friend of mine today and he's aiming to hike the last 140 miles of the Camino de Santiago in Spain early this summer! He has to train too, so we're going to be each other's accountabilibuddies. You can do it, Matt!  Woooooo!

I also decided I'm going to get myself an iPad once I get to the point where I can run/walk 5 miles in one session. I was going to do it after I could run for 30 minutes without stopping, but it looks like the way to do distance running without injury is to incorporate spurts of walking early and often.  I know I could walk 3 miles if I had to, but 5 is unlikely. It's definitely something to work towards.

I called and e-mailed my HR person to see when exactly my trusty health insurance starts, but haven't heard anything back. If I'm going to run this damn thing, I want to start training! Til then I'm planning on continuing with the hot yoga and BodyPump classes.

Does anyone have any tips/suggestions?

January 2013: Disney World (Half?) Marathon

For a long time I had a LiveJournal blog mostly for when I traveled. I haven't posted since I got back from Guatemala the summer before last, and now I started this one on Blogspot as a way to keep myself accountable to things. Really, just 1 thing: run a marathon.

Yes, for those of you who know me, the words "Kristy" and "marathon" don't really go together without a substantial amount of laughter. That's fair. In the past, I scoffed at runners and figured I'd just sorta start running if I was being chased. The truth is that I've been a little envious of runners: their mode of release, their dedication, their motivation, their bodies. None of those really seemed to apply to me ... until I realized that actually, yeah, they do. I've been able to do some pretty kickass things in my 27 years so far. I spent a semester in Italy, explored Japan by myself, taught indigenous Guatemalan kids (all in Spanish) during a rainy season in Central America, and earned two Master's degrees. If all of those don't require dedication, motivation and self-care, what does?

To me, a marathon has always seemed unattainable. That was a goal reserved for "those people" - you know, the ones who exercise for hours every day and look at chocolate like it's the devil. (Devil's food ... mmmmmmm ...) 26.2 miles is a hell of a lot of running, especially for someone who has broken her fair share of bones and tends to bake when feeling any sort of emotion. If something good happens, I bake. If I'm stressed or sad, I bake. Yes, I could bake things with whole grains, and sometimes I do, but usually whatever I bake has copious amounts of chocolate. Whatever. Then I thought, "People who run marathons can't all be the same; otherwise there would be a lot of really in-shape robots. At least some of them have to like to bake and eat chocolate." I think my point is that I can be who I am and still run a marathon.

So, this is how it has gone so far. This little idea of running a marathon has been becoming more prominent in my brain for awhile. In true Kristy fashion, I went into research mode and bought a new pair of shoes. I looked into different marathons, when they were, and training programs for the beginner. I found that there's a Walt Disney World marathon weekend in January. They have both a half marathon and a full marathon, and I think that's the one for me to do for a few reasons: (1) The minimum time requirement is a 15-minute mile, which seems doable. (2) It's 10 months from now. I'm not sure when registration for the 2013 one starts, but if I'm thinking that no way in hell could I do the full one by January 2013, I can do the half and do the full in January 2014. (3) It has enough to keep me entertained through the whole race. Besides the run through the parks, there are photo ops with characters who are dancing around on the sidelines, flipping around on trampolines, etc. Runners are also encouraged to wear costumes, which means I could run a (half?) marathon in an effing tutu. Amazing. (4) I haven't been to Disney World since I was 8, which would mean I'd be returning 20 years later to run their marathon, and that's kind of badass. (5) It gives me something to plan for and look forward to, and I tend to function better in life in general when I have a trip coming up. I could hang out at the park a couple days and go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter as well! Wingardium leviosa, bitches.

The other part of my research is really how to run and train without injury. I don't run properly, and youtube and books have been helping me remedy that. The new pair of shoes is running shoes that are in ridiculous colors that make me happy. I ordered them on Zappos the other day so they should be here soon. I also started a marathon ipod playlist to keep me motivated. It has both ridiculously upbeat "You can do it!" songs and Disney songs. So when I don't want to keep running, I can picture Gaston flipping around on a trampoline ... and falling off, because Gaston's a male chauvinist asshole and that would make me snicker. Take that, you prick! Heh heh.

I haven't actually started running yet since I don't have health insurance and I don't want to tempt fate. I started my new job on January 3 and my benefits start after 60 days, so that's coming up in the next week or so. As soon as I get my insurance card, off I go!