Week 10 – November 12, 2011.

Wow, 10 weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye. 10 weeks ago, our group could not run for more than 3 minutes at a time. Now we can run 30+ minutes at a time. 10 weeks ago, we were a bunch of strangers trying to figure out how to become runners. Now we are friends and have many potential running buddies amongst ourselves. I’m sure I will be seeing some of them in future charity races around the Syracuse area streets.  We have all come so far in what really is a short amount of time.

This past Saturday was our last official group run. Next weekend is the goal race, The Jingle Bell Run. This week we learned about “tapering” from the program director, Patti. We learned we need to let our bodies repair from the time trial 2 Saturdays ago and to give our bodies time to be fully ready and geared up to go for the Jingle Bell Run. She is right. We are all so excited that we are now runners, we don’t want to over burden our bodies and not be able to complete the goal race. After 10 weeks of hard work I want to be able to finish what I started.

Fred Lebow, NYC Marathon co-founder said it perfectly, "In running, it doesn't matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, 'I have finished.' There is a lot of satisfaction in that."

I started this program 10 weeks ago with the hopes of finally being able to call myself a runner. In the process, I’ve learned so much about myself and what I can accomplish when I really put my mind to it. The support of such wonderful running partners and of course my coach, Jessica was utterly amazing. If anyone has the desire to call themselves a runner, if you’ve driven around your neighborhood wishing to be like the runners you see on the roads, if you want to be able to run, and run, and run around with your kids, this is the program you need to join. After 10 weeks, you will definitely be able to call yourself  “a runner”; just like I now can.