I am not a runner.

Throughout high school I played multiple sports on multiple teams at any given time.  I have 6 varsity letters - four in softball, two in basketball (and technically a few more in Academics... yeah.)  I was (usually) faily slim, toned, and 100% 87.3% happy with how I looked.

Exhibit A:

All those sports resulted in three consecutive summers/falls during college where I rocked some kind of super awkward sling.

Exhibit B-D:

(Side note:  My mom made me wear a sling on our family trip to Germany to make sure my shoulder didn't dislocate during our vacation.  It was FREEZING even though it was July, so I wore my dad's sweatshirt but didn't bother to put my injured arm through the sleeve.  Taking off my sling each time I wanted to take off the sweatshirt would have been a huge pain in the ass, so it was just easier to this way. Some American kids walked by, I guess assumed we were German/didn't speak English and one LOUDLY whispered to the other 'That chick only has one arm!!!!'  Ummm, no you rude d-bag.  I have two and one is currently flipping you off, but you can't see it under my sweatshirt.  AH-nnoying.  What if I only had one arm?  How would have just made me feel?! Jerk.  End of Rant.)

Ok so what does this all have to do with running?  Basically I went from being super active to being super sedentary multiple times.  I never was really heavy, but out of shape? Sure.  Thankfully the lovely combination of walking everywhere because I couldn't drive (pain killers + use of only one arm = unsafe driver) and the insane heat/humidity combination of Florida summers kept me from gaining a ton of weight.  But it did kill any chances of playing sports - aka the only form of exercise I can really wrap my head around.

Anywho.... I tried the gym thing.  I was basically doing two-a-days and really only lost 5-7 pounds in over 6 months.  As much as I'd like to blame this on the gym, I have to own up that I spent wayyy too much time in the sauna and not enough on the treadmill.  Why? Because running F-ing sucks.  Thats why.

So obviously now that I am trying to get nicely toned, thin, and HEALTHY (while my dress may be able to hide a little chunk, my honeymoon bathing suit will not) I thought, "Hey, why not try my most hated activity?! Running!"

In all honesty the only real reason I've even taken this task seriously is because I get to wear these bad boys girls:

Vibram's Jaya shoe in red
Image via Amazon.com

I found them on super sale during my trip to Savannah with Luis (which I just realize I haven't blogged about yet... oops) and NEEDED them.  I also had to legitimize their cost and actually follow through on my running plans.  

Here are my gecko-looking feet in all their glory:

I. LOVE. THEM.  I wear them all the time.  And now I run in them.  I'm starting slowly, just a mile or two almost everyday.  My crazy dog Finley is really enjoying this new change, but not my slow slow slow pace.

I just keep trying to remember

Image Source

I'm definitely getting faster and feeling better each time I run.  I don't see any marathons in my future, but maybe nice 5K.  (How far is that anyways?)  I'm not really sure how I plan to keep running through the winter, but my crappy just at Major Nonprofit does have a few perks - including access to a free gym.  We'll see how this goes. Wish me luck!