Our First Official Training Run

Sarah came over to my house after work on Wednesday for our first official training run (because we're awesome)! :) Running shoes - check! Stretchy jogging pants - check! Pedometer - check! Motivation - double check!!!

We were off!! We set out with little B bundled up in his stroller, babbling & waving away as usual. We kept a pretty good pace & went my regular route around the neighborhood - including a grueling climb (even worse for whoever ends up pushing the stroller) up the Hill of Doom - a near vertical incline that feels almost insurmountable with both gravity AND Billy's weight working against you - but with a great view of Mission Bay as a lovely reward when you finally reach the top! Merciful Heaven knows there are days when I need the quick respite, especially when I climb the hill at the END of a good run - when I can take a break to "admire the landscape" or to bend down & try to point out to Billy the spot on the landscape below where mommy & daddy got married (I have my pride and can't let the neighbors in the big, hilltop homes see me looking too exhausted after tackling the hill).

Once we'd conquered the day's Everest - we jogged back down around to Tecolote Park so B could play & expend some energy of his own. I kept pushing Sarah on, saying, "Just jog to the corner. Now to the end of the passway. Now to the park. We're almost there." She was being hysterical, crying "Swing low, sweet chariot!" as we finally clammored up the walkway to the playground with B. She was such a sport -- either that or she's WAY more fit than I am - because I could NOT have done that jog on my first day out running!!!! We checked our "stats" when we had Billy swining away on the baby swing -- 1.45 miles. Woot! Not a huge amount - but definitely not bad!! Not bad at all - considering we're just starting out & were running on hilly terrain.

I'd love to know how far we went altogether - after we looped around the Tecolote Park baseball fields, up by the wilderness center (where Sarah claims to have spotted a creepy man heading off onto the hiking trails near dusk with a ski mask in hand), and back up around to the store for some celebratory Propel waters (Sarah: "I always enjoy a beverage treat!") and back to my house ---- BUT when I got home I realized my pedometer had broken! Curses!! The back & the batteries were totally missing. Too bad. Bill asked me if I re-traced my steps to find it & I told him I was exhausted & he was crazy -- no way was I going back out in the dark to scour the park for missing pea-sized pedometer batteries! And since he didn't gallantly volunteer to go back for me, we'll have to acquire something new..... although knowing Bill I'll end up with the old pedometer somehow held together by some concoction of duct tape and/or mechanical adhesive.

All in all - our first run together was a big success & we're now working on putting together our training schedule -- since we have more than 5 months until the big race (or "semi-big" race since it's a half) I'm confident we'll be able to conquer it!