Blubber To Runner

… a runner.

There… I admit it.  Finally, I can say that I do honestly believe that I am, in fact, a runner.

Now, this hasn’t been easy for me to wrap my head around; I mean, I clearly don’t LOOK like what people think of when someone says ‘what does a runner look like to you?’ I definitely don’t set records on my runs, like my brother did in HS (or some of my training partners can do if they chose to), but…

I am a runner.

Since New Year’s Day, I have run 101 miles… on a treadmill, outside in a bunch of different parks – in nice weather, cold weather, and ‘seriously what in the HELL are you doing out here?’ weather.  I have run alone, with friends, even made friends while running (the Jamacians loved me)

I am a runner.

So this leads me to what I’m doing right now.  For those that don’t know, I’m prepping for the Unite Half-Marathon which will be held at Rutgers University on April 22nd. Yes, I’m running 13.1 miles.  It’s not gonna be easy, but the Team Immediates Running Club has been a HUGE help and we’re sending 4 of us out to do it.

That’s a pretty special date for me too… it’s my goddaughters birthday.  She is pretty much the most important person in the whole wide world to me and even though, as she turns 7, she’ll have no clue how important what I am doing really is to me (other than she’ll want me to get done fast so I can come over for her birthday), but it will be pretty awesome to say that I did it on her special day.

And it gets better – if I can actually pull this off there are rumblings of a possible Las Vegas Marathon (26.2 miles) at the end of the year!  Hell, my Dad even said if I pull this off, the flight to Vegas is on him if we do it.  If we do that, the 18-mile LBI run in October will probably make the schedule as well.

Now, what does this mean for my social calendar?  It’s definitely different than one would expect.  It used to mean heading to karaoke, knocking back a few Jacks, singing a few songs and admiring ‘the view’.  Now, my fun time w/ my friends is actually spent at the gym going through the Siddons 90 Minutes Of Hell, lining up on the treadmills, movie ‘dates’ in the Retro Fitness movie room, or getting together in various parks across Northern/ Central NJ at 7a on the weekends to knock out some ice-cold long runs.

And I couldn’t be happier about this.

Seriously, this is how I actually wanna spend my time now.  3 days a week I pick up one of my best friends at 4:50a to hit the gym when it opens.  Once a week, I’m at a park with 2-3 of my best friends knocking out 7 or 8 miles then grabbing breakfast – or hearing about life-changing news :).  We all try to get together for strength training when we can.  This is the life I now lead.

Because I am a runner.