Like I need another blog, right?

So here's how this all got started.

A month or two back, I got a crazy idea that I wanted to start running.

(Understand here, please, that I am not fit.  I am not active.  I am overweight.  And mostly, I hate running.)

A couple of things happened to light this fire under my ass.  The first one was when I learned that someone I don't particularly like had completed a 5K.  Well, great for her, but now I had it in my head that *I* needed to go out and do one too.  Just to prove to myself that she wasn't any better than me. Stupid, you say?  Petty?  Yes, I'm well aware of all these things.

The other thing that happened was I saw a posting on FaceBook about this thing called Team AllEars.  (For the uninitiated, I'll mention here that allears.net is a Walt Disney World planning site, so I'm on there quite a bit, being the WDW freak that I am.)  I did a little bit of reading about it, and found out that basically, it's a group of runners and walkers from all over the country who meet at WDW for marathon weekend to run in one (or more) of the various races.  Not only that, the group raises funds to support Deb Wills, the founder of the AllEars site, in her Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

Having two aunts who are breast cancer survivors, and having a personal need for a serious support group  that would motivate me to do this, I decided to join.

We joined the gym where Ella takes her swim lessons (and hey, a break on the price of swim lessons -- bonus!), and I jumped in, using the Galloway method, and quickly realized I was not yet ready to run -- not even for a minute at a time.

Taking a tip from a fellow Team AllEars member, I decided to change my strategy a bit and focus on the elliptical machine for awhile, to help build my stamina and drop some pounds.  There's not much better for pure calorie burnage (burnage?) than an elliptical machine, in my estimation.

So after plugging away at that for awhile -- and by plugging, I mean at least 40 minutes a day, 5/6 days a week, with some weight lifting thrown in for good measure -- I started added little teensy runs to the end of my workouts this week.   Still using the Galloway method, but going with a walk 2 minutes /run 1 minute ratio, I found I was able to hit .5 miles in 10 minutes -- without passing out!  A miracle!

And so that's how I got where I am now.

WDW Marathon Weekend is Jan 10-13, 2013.  I've signed up for the 5K, so that's what I'm shooting for. I'd like to be able to run the whole thing by then, but even if I walk it, I'll be pretty happy with that.