The reason, the plan

The descriptions: Wind through hair, feet pounding pavement, the beat of the heart a counterpoint to strong thrusts of legs and the pumping of arms. Runner's high. Running forever. Never having to stop. Wild joy giving way to distance.

There's a reason I always wanted to run. A billion, each one a tiny fragment of the whole. And yet, I've always been earthbound. Stuck. Plodding. A tortoise among hares. When forced to run in gym, the hatred would set in as soon as my breathing faltered. My legs hurt, and I was slow--too slow for the others, who would race ahead, or lap me within what felt like seconds. I would sweat, stumble, gasp.

I hated running. But I envied the runners.

I've tried to pick it up on my own, and failed. It's hard, and progress seems immeasurable. Finally, a friend commented that she had gone from not running to running what I consider a great distance of a few miles.

A mile has always been out of my reach. When I ran a half-mile, it took me nearly as long as it would have taken me to walk it.

This friend pointed me to the Couch-to-5K Running Plan, which I thought sounded feasible--even though I've never run in my life and am currently somewhere over 200 pounds. (5'9'', if you wanted to know).

I've done week one, and am repeating it--the idea is to run, not die en route--and I've noticed improvement. So this is my journey. Stick around. It could be interesting.