Quinn [starts to] Run

Let’s get this straight right from the get-go: I’ve never been a “runner.” In fact, for most of my life I’ve abhorred running over all other types of exercise. Based on all of the whiny conversations on the topic that I’ve had with friends over the years, I’m sure some of you can relate—it’s pretty easy to hate on running.

And yet, as I’ve gotten more involved in sports during my time in college, running has begun creeping stealthily into my life. Spending time with an athletic group of people will do that to you. My rowing team encourages (see: forces) its members to participate in an annual 5K race put on by our campus’ sports and recreation program. My boyfriend Dave, a former distance runner before he began collegiate rowing, participates in a 5K run every Thanksgiving. You know what I’m talking about – the yearly Turkey Trot, Gobble Wobble, what have you, that your Trader Joe’s-loving aunt encourages the family to run in an effort to preemptively combat the dreaded Thanksgiving bloat. For me, however, even the relatively short 5K distance (3.1 miles) seemed daunting.

When I did the campus 5K my freshman year of college, I alternately walked and jogged, unready to commit to over thirty minutes of what I considered torture. During Thanksgiving break my sophomore year, the first time I went home to spend the holiday with Dave’s family, I opted out of the morning run and lounged in bed, anxious that I wouldn’t be able to finish, let alone keep up. Not that skipping the workout stopped me from (happily) gorging myself on the delicious feast later that afternoon and consuming approximately half my weight in cornbread stuffing. Of course, that’s okay. It’s not “against the rules” or “bad” not to exercise on Thanksgiving, or any day for that matter. But I felt unhappy. Not because of a neglected workout, but because I felt like I couldn’t keep up with my peers in fitness. I wanted to work towards the baseline ability to complete a 5K. That was my original goal when I started running.

To be honest, that goal didn’t progress particularly fast at first. Over the course of the next summer, my fourteen-year-old sister, a truly fantastic athlete, goaded me into a series of short runs, as she had a similar goal of building up her running endurance. We prided ourselves on completing one mile, then a mile and a half, eventually building up to around two and a half miles as August rolled to a close and the time came for me to head back to school. And then, my running pretty much dropped off to less than once a week and exclusively short runs – two miles maximum – as I focused back in on rowing.

Fast forward to mid-November and that looming Thanksgiving 5K. Anti-climactic moment of the day: we didn’t actually end up running a Turkey Trot last year. But, in preparation for one, I started training on the treadmill, and slowly built up from one mile to one mile three times to three consecutive miles. And then something crazy happened: I got on the treadmill for a three mile run, reached the three mile mark, and decided to keep running, logging four ten-minute miles in a row – the farthest I’d ever run at that point!

Probably while I was still basking in the high from surpassing my expectations of myself, I started researching half-marathon training and realized I had the baseline recommended fitness level (the ability to run three to four miles a few times a week) to begin training for one. Well, you know what happened next. I embraced that idea, one that would have seemed entirely ridiculous to me even six months ago, and started training for real, on the road.

Here we are today, about a month into that training that I began seriously halfway through December. Half-marathon training centers around a weekly “long run” that builds by a mile with each iteration complemented by shorter runs throughout the week. My longest run to date clocks in at 6.2 miles (a whole 10K!), and I hope to hit seven before I head back to school for the spring semester. I have many more miles to cover, but I’ve also come pretty far from my original aversion to running.

This March, on St. Patrick’s Day (also my two year anniversary with Dave), I’ll be running my first half marathon. Some might say zero to hero, I say 0 to 13.1!