Run, Forrest!! Run!

One of my favorite movies is Forrest Gump.  I love Tom Hanks.  He did a great job as Forrest, Forrest Gump.  So many memorable lines in the movie.  "Stupid is as stupid does."  "I think it was her grandma's dog."  "Dear God, please make me a bird, so I can fly far, far away."  One of my favorite parts is when Forrest and Jenny are coming home from school, and the boys start chasing him down the dirt road and into the field.  Jenny yells out to him, "Run, Forrest!"  And he runs off, to the point his legs look like they aren't even touching the ground.  How awesome would it be to run that fast!!  To feel the wind in your hair, the ground beneath your feet.  Aahh - running in the wide open.  This is how I picture myself when I run.

I have recently started a running interval program.  I am not very fast, but man, I feel like I have conquered the world.  There I am - just me and the treadmill (the world isn't ready to see me run in public!), running my cares away, burning up whatever I ate for lunch that day.  Yes, sir.  That's me!!!  Tearin' it up!!  Oddly, as much as I would like to look in the mirror and see myself running with ease as Forrest Gump does, I see more of this:

Clumsy.  Bulky.  Groanings coming from body - begging for someone to come in and unplug the treadmill before I pass out.  Just downright scary.

I have never minded exercise.  I mean, sure, no one LOVES exercise, unless you are one of those sick-minded, twisted souls, but sometimes it was what I needed.  To go to the gym and just walk or work out and feel like I accomplished something.  But the one thing I never, ever did was run.  I am a big girl, so there are certain things that big girls can't do and feel confident about, and plus, it scared me.  I would walk as fast as I could, until we got close to running, and I would stop.  I would hear in the back of my mind "Run!", but the other voice, would say, "Are you crazy??  Here, have another brownie!  That'll shut you up for a while!  Can't run if you have a mouth full of brownie!"  And sadly, I would listen to the brownie voice.  

This past week, though, I found myself walking and I would hear "Run".  At first, it scared me, but then I thought, "I'm at home.  If I look like Sweetums from the Muppets, who cares?"  So, I would do small jogs, no more than 20-30 seconds at a time.  When I stopped and recovered (again, I'm a big girl - running for 20-30 seconds was a miracle), I would think, "I did it".  I would walk a little and try it again.  And, so started my attempt at taking my exercise routine a step further. 

Last night, I ran and I would do 1 minute of running on each interval, up to a 3.8, which was very good for me, since I was barely functioning at 3.5 last week for 30 seconds.  I was running last night, and as I was doing the intervals, my body longed for the walking portions.  "What have we done to you?" I could hear my legs scream.  "For the love of all that is holy, make it stop!!  Make it stop!!", my feet cried out.  But in all of that, I kept reminding myself of one thing - , you can do this and you ARE doing it.

I can tell that my clothes are a little more loose, and I lost 4.2lbs last week, so I think that had something to do with it. While I was running last night, I could see my reflection in our shower wall (my treadmill faces our bathroom), and in it, I could see my ponytail rocking back and forth, my arms pumping at my sides, and a person who looked a little more confident than they did last week.  I am slowly becoming more of the person I want to be.

Run, Forrest!!  Run!