I Hate Running!

While driving around on any given day, I get to see the 13.1 or 26.2 sticker on people’s vehicles in my city of almost 4,000. The picture above is my sticker on my vehicle. 🙂 Get it? I hope so.

Yes, I have tried running. I was in track my freshman year of high school. I had to run for other sports that I participated in. I did it then, but I hated it. I don’t get why people would run for 13.1 miles on purpose. I tried to ask my track coach if he could explain how to get a pace for breathing. He couldn’t tell me. I tried, I really tried to like running.

Forward to about 1997, I had just gotten married and we wanted to have a baby. I was 24 at the time. I told myself that I needed to lose some weight before I got pregnant or I would be over 200 pounds. I was also discouraged with how much weight I had put on post-high school and college. I had never been sedentary in my life, so I thought I should start doing some kind of activity. I started to walk a mile a day which very quickly became 2, then 3 miles a day. The weight started sliding off. I felt good. I got pregnant and lost all the baby weight shortly after because I was walking everyday. I did the same exact regimen after the second baby.

To this day I still walk 3 miles a day. It helps settle me down after a stressful day. It keeps the weight off, it’s me time, and most importantly I get outside. Well, except in the winter when the snow is flying or it’s so cold the snot freezes in your nose. Gross, I know, but it’s true! It does happen.

During the winter, I walk on the treadmill and I do run a little. I mean, very little. I’m lucky if I get 3/4  of a mile in. I just can’t get the pacing thing. Then I can’t breathe right and then I get a stitch in my side. UGH! Then I go back to walking. Walking is definitely my comfort zone. I do not walk at a leisurely pace. I walk as fast as I can right before I have to start running.

Thus the window sticker of 0.0. Running makes me feel like a little bit of a failure. And why not laugh failure in the face. I have had a few people ask me what it means, and I have had a few people backup as they’re driving past and take a picture. I love it! Some people even feel my pain! A runner I am not, but I could beat you at a mean race of walking. 🙂