The Mile

The Mile and I have long, terrible history. I never really liked gym class growing up, but I was generally OK with standing in the outfield while we played kickball or rolling my scooter around the gym for Capture the Flag. But then Presidential physical fitness testing would roll around, and with it came The Mile. And you can't hide from The Mile. I would dread its approach, suffer through while psyching myself out and hyperventilating when I got a stitch in my side, and collapse in a heap at the finish after about 15-20 (mostly walked) minutes. Not my proudest moments.

I put off taking gym in high school until my senior year, and then I was the only upperclassman grouped in with the state cross-country champion and several other athletic 14-year-olds. I started training outside of class, not wanting to make a total fool of myself for once. So I went to the track a few times a week in the dark of night and ran a mile. But I am sweaty sweater, so even though I knew I could run a mile, I phoned it in to avoid smelling funky and having terrible hair for the rest of the day following my second-period run.

Flash forward a decade or so, and I'm past the point of caring about the sweat face. I will be grosser than the burliest dude at the gym when I'm done working out, but at least I worked out. I've been running intervals (30 seconds jog/30 seconds walk) on the treadmill lately, and it's been going pretty well (no knee pain, no feeling like death afterward). So it occurred to me that I should try to face down The Mile. I figured it couldn't be that bad; even with walking half the time I was doing a mile in less than 15 minutes, so I figured I could just average my walking and running paces and crank that baby out in a reasonable amount of time.

Well, logic pulled through and I ran a full mile on Saturday morning, for the first time in ... 11 years? My time was 11:35, which I realize is not impressive, but I think it's probably my PR. I walked it out afterward and am feeling pretty good now, except for the lung thing. You know, when your heart rate gets really high and then it stirs up all the crap in your lungs and you feel like you have the worst cold for a few days? Yeah, that is happening.

Despite the coughing issues, I'm pretty excited about this new development. I've always wanted to be the type of person who goes for casual runs, and I feel like that's at least in the realm of possibility now. I'm toying with the idea of signing up for a spring 5K, just to have something to work toward. I think this is the start of something good.