A New Love

I'll admit it: I am a little obsessive. When I find something I like, my passion is deep and usually immediate, and it can find a source in anything from cereal (ahem), to people, to activities.

Lately I've fallen in love again--this time with running. I never thought I could run because I always was out of breath after running for just a few minutes. I never knew you could train yourself to be a better runner, and nor did I care. Who would want to run?, I thought.

Then I was challenged to run with some people from work. Unfortunately for me in this instance, I work with Army guys who have been running for YEARS. It probably doesn't take much brainpower for you to imagine just how red my face was or how hard I huffed and puffed after, oh, about five minutes of running with them one sweltering late summer afternoon. (Oh, OKAY, I'll tell you the truth: I almost passed out! It was the closest I ever want to get to an out-of-body experience.)

My pride was hurt. I thought I was in pretty good shape: I hike almost daily, I work out. I thought I'd last longer than I did.

I decided to start training myself to run. I used to joke that I only ran when chased; I don't like the thought of not being able to run if chased, you know?

I have a very long way to go, but I've already tasted how very awesome it feels to run (well, run/walk) at 5 AM. Seriously. I don't know when I have felt so alive and so clear--and the feeling lasts for hours afterwards! I'm hooked. So, like any fool in the first rush of love, I had to come tell you all about it.

Any other runners out there?