I don’t remember the first time my alarm went off but I do vaguely remember the second time because my clock said 6:29 AM. A few seconds later my backup cell phone alarm sounded. I asked God to give me strength to get out of bed for group training. After all I am doing this to help people with blood cancer. I sleepily strolled down the stairs to let Nyah out to potty.  To my surprise, snow was coming down like a blanket.  My car and the streets were covered. My inner Sam L. Jackson voice from the ridiculous movie “Snakes on a Plane” came out…I angrily exclaimed “I’m so sick of this mofo snow on my mofo car!!!”  There was no way that I was shoveling my sidewalk or scraping snow off of my car again.  Not in the freezing cold and not at 6:30 in the morning.  Plus it was coming down so hard I knew that the streets wouldn’t be safe. I climbed back in bed knowing that I would still have to find time to get in my 8 miles today.  I ran some errands and picked up my little sister and went to the gym. I decided to do 4 miles on the indoor track and 4 miles on the treadmill.  I couldn’t decide what type of music to listen to, so I downloaded a book on tape. I guess they’re not really called the book on tape anymore? I went to audible.com and downloaded the digital version.  As I walked, I listened to African-American fiction king, Eric Jerome Dickey’s book called Sleeping with Strangers. Put the kids to bed before you listen to this one! It’s a sexy little story about the beginnings of a hit man for hire. I had only broken a small sweat after I finished the first 4 miles.

 When I made it down to the workout room I was surprised to see my Dad on the stationary bicycle. We chatted for a quick second and I got on the treadmill. He said, “Daughter, I did not know that you walked that fast.” I was only walking at a 17 min. mile pace, which I thought was pretty slow. I guess it’s a Dad’s job to encourage you…. Not long after my uncle, my Dad’s brother, came in too.  It was a family affair!  Once I started getting towards the end of my routine, my little sister started to get restless. She complained that we were in the gym all day long, since they opened. She said that everyone had come and gone but we were still there. I think there may have been a little bit of truth to that because my Daddy and my uncle were gone by the time that we left.  But you know what?! For the first time in my life, I walked 8 miles! It might have taken me 2 and a half hours, almost all day according to my little sister, but I did it.  And, I have posted my picture from my Nike iPod app to prove it!

My 8 Mile Walk!

8 Comments
  1. WOOHOOO!!!!! Very proud of you!!! Keep up the great work! You will be at 13.1 in no time!
    Just wanted to let you know that I really missed you this last Sunday. I did a 7K trail run and you were not able to have pods, headphones, buds any thing. I am so used to walking to music I didn’t think I was going to make it the whole way without it! Please don’t leave me again! LOL That was the longest walk of my life!

  2. What the deuce? No music? Ugh….I could not handle that for sure. I need my music and Carli’s motivation.

    Bill

  3. Tam, I can’t believe that you still listen to my podcasts! I would think you would be so sick of listening to me. LOL! I don’t know what I would do with music or book on tape or something. I heard that they “don’t encourage” use of headphones during the half-marathon. But, I’m pretty sure I’ll be breaking the rules that day.

  4. Bill, What the deuce? Hilarious, all day after I read your comment I was going around saying “what the deuce?” LOL! I hope training is going well. I think you’re on like week 6 or 7 now.

  5. Hi Carli,

    I can’t claim “What the deuce” as my own. It is a tag line of Stewie from “Family Guy”

    Anyway, yes I SHOULD be on week 7, but I can’t get through Week 6 Day 3! I have tried twice now. The first go I made it to about 22 minutes and lost it, I had to walk about 30 seconds bu tthen I finished really strong with a running pace. I dug deep. Yesterday I was ready to conquer W6D3, but the wind was blowing and I don’t think I had fully recovered from my previous attempt two days before. I barely made it to 15 minutes and I had to take a walk. Then another walk around 20 minutes. I still did the distance as I pause your podcast while I walk and restart when I go back to jogging. I hurt today so I know that I have pushed myself harder than I have since Week1. I am going to give myself a couple of days to recover fully and then make another go at it. I will conquer W6D3, have to since all of Week 7’s runs are 25 minutes straight.

    Thanks for the encouragement.

  6. So Saturday rolled around, and I was dreading my run all day. I was doing all kinds of things around the house to stay occupied and busy so I might run out of time. Finally at about 7:00 pm I said to myself I had to do it. During my brisk walk I kept telling myself that I could do this, I owned this Week 6 Day 3-25 minute run, no excuses. I DID IT! It went by so quickly. I made it to my turn around point with plenty of reserves for the run back. Thank goodness, I was so worried that I wouldn’t be able to run 25 minutes straight.

    I will get through Week 7 now, wonder what Week 8 holds in store.

    Bill

  7. Hey just as a heads up – I just did W7D1, the 25 minute run is only about 22 minutes long! I was running 5 min laps around a track I use then halfway thru the last lap you said I was in my last minute! I checked when I got home, run starts at around 5:37, and finishes up at around 27:30.

    Don’t get me wrong, your podcasts have probably saved my life, got me off the couch and got my blood pressure down! You rock

    Regards

    Jim

  8. Hey Jim, I will check it out. I think someone may have told me that before, I thought I fixed it? Maybe not. Congrats on making it through week 7. So glad your BP is down, I hate taking that little pill everyday, that’s one of my motivations for getting healthy. Best of Luck!

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