Almost two years ago, my mother got the crazy idea that she was going to start running. Maybe it wasn't so crazy. High blood pressure runs in our family, as well as strokes caused by high blood pressure. She already has the HBP, but she's terrified of having a stroke, which is understandable. She ran her first 5k and had a terrible time. It didn't deter her though. She stuck with it, and now she runs a couple races every month. She has won her age group more than once now; she has run her first mini-marathon in a great time; and she's currently training for her first full marathon. She's an absolute inspiration to me.
For the past year, I have been walking many of the 5K and 4 mile races she has participated in. I do pretty well in them too. I improve almost every race, and, in my last race, I was second overall walker. However, I wanted more. I wanted to run too. This is coming from a girl who has always detested running. Even when I was an athlete in high school, I was a terrible runner. I didn't even know where to start. Luckily, I checked out my school issued iPad's app store and found an app called "From 0 to 5K." It is an 8 week program that asks me to run three times a week. It mixes walking with running and slowly builds up your endurance.
I am currently at the halfway point in my program: 4 weeks down, 4 to go. Every time I have to run for a longer period of time, I am reminded that I'm still horrible at running. I'm trying so hard, but it's also discouraging sometimes. My mom has been my biggest supporter throughout all of this. I don't think I want to be a marathon runner, but I do want to be able to run 5k races without stopping to walk. I'm starting to realize that running is in the mind much more than the body, so I'm trying to push myself harder and harder every time I run.
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