I’m losing my mind. I swear I’ve been looking forward to this for days. This morning I got up early and did week 5 day 3 of the couch to 5k program.

After a 5 minute warmup walk, run 20 minutes.

Remember just last week when I was whining about the program thinking I could go running for 5 minutes?  That was last week.  Now I can run for 20 minutes.  It says that that should be about 2 miles at this stage.  I can’t measure my distance very well.  There are maps of where I run but the mileage is very confusing to figure out on the messed up maps.  I’m thinking I ran about 1.5 miles.  It is true that I run very slowly.  If I was being chased by monsters (which two months ago would have been the only way I could conceive of running for 20 minutes) I would be caught by all of them except the very slow Shaun of the Dead zombies.  But, I’m not really discouraged because I’m not running on a flat, groomed track.  I’m running on trails with crazy bad footing and no flat surfaces.  I’m either running uphill or trying not to crash on the slick downhills.  Under those conditions I think doing 1.5 miles the first time is pretty good.  Now that I know that it is possible – and cardiovascular-wise I felt able to go on at the end of 20 minutes even if my legs were tired from the hills – I can work on going faster where it is safe.

I’m actually really proud of myself today.  I don’t get that way often.  Two months ago if someone would have said that I would be running 1.5 miles easily I would have asked if I would then sprout wings and fly home.  It would seem just as likely.  I’m in shock.  The program is amazing even if it looks crazy when you first look at it and you say “There is no way!”  If I can do it, literally anyone can do it.  I’m thinking of even calling my crazy runner father and confessing.  The whole family has been keeping him in the dark about this since we’ve spent the last 25 years or so mocking his running.