Running? Really?

So back in 2011, my wife, who had never ran in any running race, decided to run with some of the teachers at our elementary school.  One of the teachers decided to share his joy of running with other teachers and parents. I wanted to join them but it seemed that life : work and other priorities were more important.  My wife entered a 10k race in July 2011 and finished.   I regretted not joining them and promised myself that I too would get back in shape.   During this same time, AT&T had encouraged their employees to begin living a healthy lifestyle because "yourHealth matters".   I decided to commit to working out 30 min a week.   Yes,  just 30 min a week.  I wanted to take it easy ..ya know?    But you guessed it.....  I never got around to it. 

Fast forward to 2012....  My wife said that they were going to train for a half-marathon.  uh .. that's like 13.2 miles right?   "Can't I just run a 10k like everyone else?" was a question I asked my wife.   She assured me that we could do it so I started.  Before I started running I weighed approx 275 and could not even run for 400 yds without losing my breath.  I decided to make the commitment and try to document my progress in this first post.

You can read about my coach on his blog Story of a Barefoot Runner.  My coach has been patient and has encouraged me along the way.  When we run I am usually in the back, but I have found the joy of running.  There is a joy of being able to run without any pressure to compete.  The battle is within my own mind to continue and push forward. 

So..... 8 weeks into training ...  I have lost 20 pounds and was able to run 6.6 miles this past Sunday with my wife.  What?  What a trip?  Running .....  Really?   Here's to the rest of my training and the remaining 6 weeks until our race on April 1st at Running of the Elk Half Marathon .   During my training, I have worn Brooks shoes after getting fitted at Fleet Feet in Sacramento.  I have eaten less and since our training is going to start tracking miles, I ended up getting a Soleus GPS 1.0 watch.  You can read a couple reviews here.  Soleus 1.0 Review or DC Rainmaker Review.  Wish me luck and I post more as time permits.