Once upon a time, I ran.
I’m not sure why I started. I think I had come across the Couch to 5k program online. Maybe it was on one of those sites where people list their goals and keep track of them with other people, and the entire user base collectively achieve three things. Regardless, my mother had bought a treadmill a few weeks earlier, and I wanted to make some changes in my life.
I finished the C25k program, without ever actually running 5k, since I followed the program running for time rather than distance. I ran a couple of 5k races. Without changing much in terms of eating habits, I lost around 60 lbs. Shawshank and I made a trip to Vegas, where I ran the Rock & Roll half-marathon before we renewed our wedding vows.
The following year, after he started running with me, the two of us ran a local half put on downtown. Later, we ran another Rock & Roll half in Providence. The weather that morning was wet, with a chance of rain. Instead, it poured the entire time, torrential downpours of about an inch every hour I was on the course. It was the worst race ever.
And I never ran again.
