So my friend Katy, who is lately inspiring me to a healthier lifestyle all around, mentioned that she is planning on running the Texas Independence Relay in March. Soon afterwards I found myself telling her that I was interested in running it with her. What? I have never run more than a 5K in my life outside of soccer games. Do I really want to do this?

The relay is a little over 200 miles long, split up into 40 legs. Each leg is somewhere between 3 and 9 miles long. Each person will run about 3-5 legs, depending on how many people are on your team. The race is nonstop, so there will be some nighttime running, some middle-of-the-day running, and some morning running.

I want to run it because it’s a big event, and it sounds fun. As much as I think I hate running, I keep coming back to it. I keep entering random 5Ks, so apparently I like the races. I would get to experience the great state of Texas in a way I never have before, and I would get to visit a lot of cute small towns along the way. Also, I want to get in better shape. Yes I play soccer, but it’s totally different. That keeps me in decent shape, but I want to be in good shape. Or even great shape. I like to have a goal to work toward in order to motivate me, and this seemed like just the thing.

So I need to start training. The other night Katy sent me a marathon training schedule, but it was confusing at first glance. It did inspire me though, so I figured since I had the next morning off I’d go for a run. My mistake came when I decided to get 8 hours of sleep so that I didn’t end up going running until around 8:30 a.m., and by that time the sun was well up in the sky and the heat index was definitely in the 90’s. I ran for 15 minutes before giving up.

I vented to Katy about my frustration and she explained the training schedule to me. It’s set up in a way that seems totally do-able, and gradually builds up endurance. It begins 24 weeks out from race day which for us isn’t until September 16, so I think I’m going to wait until then to start in hopes that it will be a tiny bit cooler. (Ha!) In the meantime I will try to step up my amount of bike rides and yoga sessions just to get myself moving more.

Happy Thursday!