*

I got an IM from Benito the other day, cajoling me to run the Shamrock Shuffle with him and his buddies.

My questioning if it was a 5k was met with a sneer as big as an online sneer could be: �Why pay $20 to run a race if you�re just gonna run for 20 minutes?! We do nothing smaller than a 10k.�

Golly geez.

So, yeah, I�ve been working out a few times each week. I either do 30 minutes of that stupid-looking elliptical trainer where I half-pedal/half-run on a pair of skis that promise to absorb most of the impact on my knees, or I�m undoing the light elliptical�s light impact as an out-right maniac on the treadmill.

The 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer are done at quite a pace. I run (or is that ellipt?) along to the teeny-bopper music at 80% of my capacity, and I turn into a full-out sprint on the chorus. There�s nothing like a little You drive me crazy and Oops! I did it again to get your butt in gear.

However, my maniac time on the treadmill is definitely taking advantage of the study saying that short workouts may work out. I walk for five minutes to loosen up, steadily holding the treadmill�s up arrow key as the timer hits 4:50. The next five minutes are out-right crazy, as my little legs go nuts trying to run 8 miles per hour. I usually make it, but I�ll admit that I sometimes go as slowly as 6.5 mph -- which isn�t quite being a slack-ass either. I do this for five minutes, lift a set of arms, repeat the running, lift another set, repeat the running, lift another set, and then finish off with the running.

So now you�re thinking that I�m HardcoreJo. I surely could run a 10k without giving it two thoughts.

This is where you�re wrong, my friend.

This Jo is a speedy one, but she�s not built for endurance. I run quickly. I run strongly. I would even say that I run like the wind. However, that wind stops dead in its tracks after a mere few laps around the track.

I seriously can�t think of a time that I�ve ever run farther than a mile and a half. There�s never been any reason to. Even back in high school when I was considered an athlete, I was already then all about the sprints. I remember about a year ago when I had gotten into running up the stairs at the football stadium near my house (which was arguably more difficult than running and that I could do for thirty minutes nonstop), I took to the track and ran a mile to prove to myself that I could. It was nothing spectacular, but I did it. I seriously had no desire to go any farther than those four laps.

Running is boring. Running is monotonous. Running hurts my booblets. After no time at all, I ADD out and look for something else to do. I seriously think that if you put a basketball in my hands, I could run a marathon. If you told me to run up and down 5k of bleachers, I could probably do it. But once you put me on flat ground and let me go, it�s a smidge away from being over.

So Benito�s teasing got to me, and I looked online for a 10k training program. Two nights ago I started the program (which coincidentally indeed started on a Wednesday), and I took to the streets in my two sports bras (protecting the girls!), my yoga pants, a long-sleeved cotton shirt, new socks, and my Sauconys.

I took off down Clark, aiming to make it the half-mile to North Avenue, vowing only to stop for stoplights. When I rounded the corner back to Dearborn and headed back towards home, I just kept going. I seriously had a Run, Forrest, Run moment, and I just kept going.

I was like that damn rabbit with the good batteries (Why don�t my rabbit�s batteries stay fresh for that long?! Ha!) I kept going and going and going...

By time I made it down to Chicago Avenue, I just turned around and headed back home. I made a less-than-one-minute stop at a stoplight, and rounded the corner to my house.

Somehow I ran a little longer than the training program said I should walk/run, finishing off 2.25 miles.

Not too damn shabby for my first time running.

I may not be running 10k in three weeks at the Shamrock Shuffle, but Benito had better dust off his Nikes. I�m about to give him some competition.

* Stolen from Bethany9. Clicky!

My friend Paul and his wife Kara are super-involved community members in SE Texas doing all sorts of neat stuff that they get to brag about in family newsletters each Xmas. These two wonderful and caring people are having their yearly American Cancer Society funds drive. They�re aiming to raise $1,000 this year, so let�s see if we can help them reach their goal. All contributions are tax-deductible and go to the ACS -- a great cause whether you�re into the humanitarian acts or life-changing scientific research! We�ve all been touched in some way by this wretched disease, and this organization has services available to all. Why don�t ya help out and give what you can?

Of the names I recognized on the site's "Honor Roll," a big thank you goes out to Xeran for making a donation! Thanks so much!!�