From Soccer player to Long Distance Runner - Slow as a turtle

One of the many things on my list that I have yet to do is run a half marathon. I love to run. I don't do it well, but I really enjoy it.

About a week and a half ago, I decided to go to an informational meeting about Team Challenge - the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) program to train individuals to run or walk a half marathon while raising money to help find a cure for Crohn's disease or Colitis.
My mom sent me the info for it knowing that I was looking for a group to train with. It sounded interesting, but the location was what really pulled me in - Napa to Sonoma Valley. Who can resist wine country?!

So now I've agreed to train with them and raise $3500. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about raising that much money. It seems like a lot, especially since last year when I did the Relay For Life, I only raised about $600 - but then again, I didn't have 5 months to collect donations like I do for Team Challenge. I'm hoping that all my friends and family and their friends and family will help me achieve this goal!

With that said, I decided to start running on my own. I'm already sore enough from playing soccer 3x a week, so I knew that running tonight wouldn't be that easy. I was right! Granted, I did take the dogs with me, which made the running a little harder since they wanted to sniff and pee on EVERYTHING. But they did alright. Zoe was ready to sprint and Dolly was content with a light jog. Finding a happy medium took a while.

I started off with a short distance - just shy of a mile - in the neighborhood. I passed a fellow jogger, lit up by his blinking red light. I'm not sure how long it took me as I didn't have a watch with a timer - that's something I need to put on my list of things to get. I can't say if I did the mile in 15 or 20 min. If it was 20 minutes, then that's really sad. It's like being as slow as a turtle, if not slower! I'm hoping it was only like 15 minutes. Though I'm aiming for the 5-10 minute miles. I'm going to have to run 13.1 miles and at this rate, it'll take ALL day! Ugh. I hope this gets better.

I need a hot tub installed in my backyard. My body was aching after that. I'm getting old! More likely I'm just out of shape. Let's hope it gets better. I see the chiropractor tomorrow. My body will be thanking me and then maybe it will be better if I can get another run in tomorrow. I think this time though, I'll try it without the dogs and possibly get a stopwatch. Then I'll know for sure how turtle-like I really am.