Running
The last time I ran for exercise was in the Army and believe me, I only did it when I had to. Before that I ran track in high school but my longest race was the 120 yard high hurdles. When I was "forced" to run a quarter mile by the coach, I thought I would die. I assumed there are sprinters and long-distance runners in the world and you were either one or the other. So I resigned myself to never running further than a quarter mile at a time.
This worked for a long time. But then I joined the National Guard and they actually expected me to run two miles without stopping! I did not think I could actually do it. I started training. I ran a quarter mile and then I walked a quarter mile. I timed myself and found that there was no way I could make it under my time limit (even for my advanced age) by walking even one time around the track. I had to run. So I added a quarter mile at a time for the first two weeks. I was running a half mile and walking a quarter mile for a while. By the third week, I was running the entire two miles! I was very proud of myself but I was half dead when I finished. I got my time down to pretty close to what I needed to pass my Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT).
When I took my test I easily passed the push up test but failed my sit up test. I still had to run two miles. I came pretty close to passing but not quite. I was disappointed but the more I thought about it, if I had passed that first time, I would have thought the test was too easy or I was great (I know myself too well). Thankfully, I failed. That meant I had to keep running. An amazing thing happened. I started running each morning before going to work. By the second morning I had fallen in love with running! I decided to run every other day and on the mornings I had "off" I found myself wanting to run. I am still not very good but I am not near as tired as I once was and my time is coming down quite well. I am also working on my sit ups and have mastered that as well. My next APFT will be in July - with God's help, I will be ready for it!
Update: Well, I did not have to take my APFT test in July - lucked out, I guess. But I did have to take it October 13, 2005. Since I last wrote about this I have continued running three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday). My time seemed to be stuck at right around 20 minutes (I need to run two miles in 19 minutes and 48 seconds to pass). But running continues to be a reasonably pleasant medicine I take weekly.
Today was the day! Since I am leaving on Monday (10-17-05) for a two week school, I had to take the APFT test early. Three of us showed up at the Armory at 9:00am. We did the pushups first - I passed with 40. Next was the situps - I needed 28 to pass - I did 28! Last was the two-mile run. We drove over to my sergeant's neighborhood for the run. The day was cool but I found myself dying of thirst just before we were about to begin. I did not ask the sergeant for a drink of water - I wish I had. We had to do two and a half laps around his neighborhood. My mouth was so dry! I persevered. I tried to run faster whenever I caught myself slowing up. My half-point time was very good and encouraged me. I got into the "zone" with one lap to go. A dog tried to nip at my heels on the first lap but he left me alone on the second. As I rounded the last turn I thought I would never see the sergeant - but then - there he was. He was holding out the stopwatch. The other two soldiers had long arrived at the finish line and I was envious of the sight of them sitting on the group breathing in deeply and being motionless! As I reached the sergeant he yelled out my time: 19 minutes and 20 seconds! I passed!
~GJH~(4-29-2005)