Today I ran my first 5K race since becoming healthy. I used the Couch to 5k program which over 9 weeks got me running over 3 miles at a time. This was going to be my first test to see if the training had paid off. I had been running longer than 9 weeks, so i didn’t just finish the program or anything like that. The actual results were not posted yet but I think I roughly hit about 8:45 per mile. It felt great to not only complete the run, but to aggressively try for my best time.
Another thing I have started doing is reading. I know the way I just phrased that sounds a bit ridiculous. What I meant was, I started reading things that matter. Normally if I sat down to bury my face in a book, it would be non-fiction or science fiction. One night I was laying in bed reading “Reamde” by Neil Stephenson, when I started thinking about my baby daughter. You know that thing that happens when your reading a paragraph, and at the same time your thinking about something totally unrelated, and your actually not absorbing anything that you’re reading because of it? It was one of those. I was thinking about classic literature and how when I was in high school and in college, I never read any of it. It was assigned, and I would basically find a way to cheat, or find some way to get around reading it. And I was good…..I could make anyone believe I read anything. Looking back on it, I was kind of filled with regret. Not only did I feel regret, but I suddenly had this urge to just start taking in everything I could think of. Like a cyborg. In my head I created a mental list of books that I wanted to read as soon as possible, Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” and “The Old Man and the Sea”, Keuroac’s “On the Road” – it occurred to me that I hadn’t really read anything that actually mattered. I wanted to be able to one day talk about books like these with my daughter. It’s crazy what having a kid does to you. It has an effect that I can’t really describe. All I can say is that it makes you want to become the best you can be as a person and as time passes, the more I watch her grow, the more drive it gives me to be the best I can be. A sappy blog entry, but the truth.
Another thing I have started doing is reading. I know the way I just phrased that sounds a bit ridiculous. What I meant was, I started reading things that matter. Normally if I sat down to bury my face in a book, it would be non-fiction or science fiction. One night I was laying in bed reading “Reamde” by Neil Stephenson, when I started thinking about my baby daughter. You know that thing that happens when your reading a paragraph, and at the same time your thinking about something totally unrelated, and your actually not absorbing anything that you’re reading because of it? It was one of those. I was thinking about classic literature and how when I was in high school and in college, I never read any of it. It was assigned, and I would basically find a way to cheat, or find some way to get around reading it. And I was good…..I could make anyone believe I read anything. Looking back on it, I was kind of filled with regret. Not only did I feel regret, but I suddenly had this urge to just start taking in everything I could think of. Like a cyborg. In my head I created a mental list of books that I wanted to read as soon as possible, Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” and “The Old Man and the Sea”, Keuroac’s “On the Road” – it occurred to me that I hadn’t really read anything that actually mattered. I wanted to be able to one day talk about books like these with my daughter. It’s crazy what having a kid does to you. It has an effect that I can’t really describe. All I can say is that it makes you want to become the best you can be as a person and as time passes, the more I watch her grow, the more drive it gives me to be the best I can be. A sappy blog entry, but the truth.
