OK, I did it.  I ran.  I didn’t die…I’m happy about that.  It started this morning.  My dog decided not to hear me calling his name so I ran across the backyard barefoot to intercept him before he was so far gone I would have to jump into the van and drive to the neighbors to retrieve him….again.  My legs felt good and I wasn’t too winded.

After a full day of driving and meetings and some paperwork as I let the sun be overtaken by some clouds and it was cool enough to breath before I gave it a go.  I have been walking.  My running route is 4 miles in total but I haven’t even walked that distance yet.  I did make it 3 miles walking one day.  I suppose I am being a bit overconfident but I figure I have to try sometime, huh?

Still working on the quitting smoking part.  I decided to stop smoking about 20 minutes before I leave and wait at least 30 minutes afterwards.

I found my ear buds for my ipod.  I guess really I ran out of excuses not to try to run again.

My dog has been walking with me, he likes to be on the walks and he is grounded for life for running off to the neighbors and staying gone for 6 hours whereby causing me some serious worry.  He is a little guy and there are many, many monsters in the woods these days.  He is just the right size for coyote food and eagle food and probably hawk food.  So now he walks with me for his exercise rather than run the neighborhood.  Like I said, he likes the walks but he misses getting to be loose and on his own.

When I started actually running he gave me that sideways look he gives me when he just knows for sure I don’t know what the hell I am doing….I get that look a lot.

We walked the first 3/4 of a mile, listening to music and watching for monsters.  Then I stopped and turned around and started actually running.  Now I didn’t run the entire way home…no, just running off and on for the return trip.  But I ran…I didn’t jog, I didn’t walk fast…I ran.  The weather is just summer hot….temp around 95 (89 in the shade) and the humidity hovers around 99%.  Sweat is pouring from every pore on my body and I feel good.  When I did run (35 years ago), I ran in the heat of the Texas summer…East Texas, so the weather was about the same and I have to admit, I smiled as I chugged along today with that memory fresh in my head.

My guess is that tomorrow I will not be able to repeat todays’ performance.  If memory serves me right… I will spend the day whining about how much my shins hurt.