Fat Girl Running: Week 1

Today I started marathon training.  Well, I had orientation for it.  I don’t think the official training starts until next week.  WHATEVER, that detail’s not important.  About a month ago I signed up for both for the L.A. Leggers and the LA Marathon.  Why?  Because I’m cheap and I had to pay for both.  If you’re cheap and you shell out money for anything, you’re going to see it through.  Like college.  How much am I paying per credit!?  See you at 10am.

Now I’m running a marathon.  Or I will be running a marathon.  I don’t care if takes me days to finish, I can’t get a refund so my ass is doing 26.2 miles one way or another on March 20.  That’s where the L.A. Leggers come in.  Hopefully, after training with them it won’t be such a grueling task.

What could be more fun than tracking my progress in a blog?  And before anyone who’s met me recently starts screeching about how I’m not fat, let’s be clear that I was. I’m only this size because I started eating better and running about 3 years ago. By running, I mean jogging.  I’m not technically fat in a medical sense but I just see myself as a fat girl.  I like being a fat girl.  So if I’m 300 pounds or 150 pounds (I am NOT 150 pounds), I still refer to myself as a fat girl.  There are probably plenty of fat people running marathons all over the world.  Mmmmkay?

Today was orientation for the Leggers, as I said earlier.  I was told to be prepared to run a timed mile(!) and be there for 7am.  I hadn’t run a timed mile since high school.  Among strangers, no less!  I left my apartment early so I could get there early.  Apparently, everyone else did as well because by the time I drove by the meeting spot there were tons of people hanging around outside in their running clothes.

Panic set in immediately.  I’m going to be late.  These people look like pros.  I don’t want to pay for parking. I parked my car in a public lot and sprinted to the group.  It was fine.  Nothing was set in stone so I just wandered around, signed in and got my goody bag(!) and ran my mile.  There was a little welcoming talk and it was over!  Everyone was delightful and not at all scary.

In addition to tracking my actual mileage, I think I’ll note some random things here as well .  Mostly psyching myself out kind of stuff.

SUCH AS

• I HATE running near others.  Being part of a running group, this is surely going to irritate me.  Let’s see if it lessens over time!

• I HATE running without music.  I like running to a beat, I like singing along to control my breathing.  Today was tough at the orientation having to just run.  Let’s see if I can overcome this!

• I do NOT like to take walk breaks.  I guess the Leggers run in a way so that every so often you take a walk break.  The minute I stop running and walk, it’s nearly impossible for me to convince myself to run another long distance.

• After about 6 miles I tell myself that I, Emily Richmond, am not capable of running this far and not being tired so I should stop.  I can convince myself to get up to about 12 but then that’s REALLY pushing what the Emily I think I am is capable of doing.

So there we have it.  My first day as a Legger.  My first day of my official marathon training. Eep!