Day 16,264: The 5K Runner with a 24K Heart

I have to commend my husband. After starting and committing to a fitness routine last year, he made up his mind that he wanted to start running in local 5K marathons. I assumed that it would be a passing fancy. I mean, for the first time in our 20+ years together, he was talking about running, for Pete's sake. Didn't he get the memo that running requires effort and can lead to profuse sweating? Not that I didn't believe that he had it in him to succeed. Of course I did. Of course he would. My response was more like, well, why this and why now?

Is it obvious that I didn't opt join him? Well I did. One time. Only because he agreed to walk this particular 5K with me in October. Only because a spirited stroll is the only way that I roll. But really because they promised free beer and food afterward. Don't judge me. There was a reggae band, too. Who wouldn't walk three miles with a fantastical lure like that? But I have to admit, watching him run this morning, his first 5K of the year, and witnessing how these races have changed him over time, I'm not only feeling immensely proud of him, but shamelessly jealous. What's that about? Is running something that I might want to do, too?

I am not a couch potato, but I am leaning dangerously close to that zone lately. Walking is definitely my exercise of choice. Yet walking requires getting my butt outdoors and/or onto a treadmill. Troublesome requirements. I've done neither consistently since *grumble-grumble-grumble*. I practice yoga when I have class once per week. Hit and miss as my attendance may be, it still counts as exercise. When I go.

What would it take for me to agree to set the intention to run a 5K some day? I guess, like anything else (as I posted about yesterday), it's a matter of making up my mind to do it and committing the time to practice for it. Excuses be damned. And yet those damned excuses can be pretty powerful in their ability to influence me to postpone until tomorrow the occasions that should be risen to today.

I don't know if I'm ready to go there yet. To the commitment stage. I might hold at entertaining the idea for awhile longer. But I do know that watching Dan run sure is fun. And I do enjoy cheering him on and lending my support. Yet I also know that there are few things that I hate more than letting my fears keep me from trying something that could expand the boundaries of what I believe I can and cannot be or do.

So I guess we'll see ...