It’s the new year so what’s a girl who’s fed up with feeling chunky and out of shape to do? Overly snug clothes, dreadful photos taken during Christmas dinner and the now hard-to-overlook jowls forming along my jaw line are doing little to boost the I-feel-good-about-myself attitude we’re all supposed to wake up with.
(Does a bad photo — double chin, unflattering hair colour, droopy eyes, hunched-over posture, visible spare tire — spiral you into a state of misery as it does me? Future plastic surgery is only being ruled out because I probably will never be able to afford it. But let’s be honest. More people would undergo plastic surgery if money weren’t an issue. So, how much is an eyelift anyway?)
Should I join a gym like the rest of the sheeple forking over their hard-earned money this month only to see it go to waste after giving up on their New Year’s Resolutions by Jan. 31? I’ll pass, thanks. Gyms work for people who work the gym. I applaud them. It is a certain breed of people and I discovered long ago I’m not one of them.
My preference is to get outside, breathe in fresh air and get exercise in a way that it doesn’t seem like I’m exercising. Rain has never really been a deterrent. Mostly, it’s working full time at the Courier then heading home to work full time taking care of all home-related duties and chauffeuring the kids around to all of their activities.
Pffft, some of you may say to my excuses of lack of time. You gotta make the time, Hughesie. And so I do. My family is also now grasping the generally accepted wisdom that a home is happiest when mama is happy. And we all know, it doesn’t take much to keep mama happy. Just picking up socks and putting them in the laundry basket for instance. Simple stuff, really.
And just for the record, when I’m chauffeuring my kids around to soccer practice, games, swimming, Brownies, skating etc, I have tried to get in some exercise while waiting to pick them up again. I’m just not keen on being out in the dark near forested areas on my own and worrying about two- and four-legged creatures.
Thanks to my colleague Naoibh O’Connor, 2014 is going to be the year of my return to happiness via improved fitness. I can already feel my heart growing two times in size.
O’Connor succeeded in convincing me to enrol in a Sun Run training program through my local community centre this week. She took the time to find the program online. I just needed to fork over my credit card info and – boom — I was signed up. No turning back now.
You wouldn’t know it to look at O’Connor, what with her trademark Irish pasty pallor and affinity for black clothes that even her young children question, but she’s completed a handful of 10k runs and I know come every Monday morning at work before the April run, she’ll greet me with a question: Did you get in an extra run on the weekend?
But paying someone to lead me on runs outside has always been odd for me. I can run for free on the streets. Do I really need to pay someone for that?
Yes, I do, especially since my level of fitness hovers at a three out of 10. I need help, motivation and purpose. The training will kickstart what I hope will be a return to a more active lifestyle if only because I will have other people to run with (and I’ve paid for the training, which also includes the race entry fee, Sun Run T-shirt and long-sleeved training shirt).
I’ve completed one 10k run before and loved it but that happened because I had a running partner who was as committed as I was. It was also pre-kids when free time seemed limitless. The Pacific Spirit Run through the trails of Pacific Spirit Park is how I like to run. Trail running is so much more pleasant and easier on my joints than running on asphalt, but I’m not about to go negative before I’ve even started my training. My only fear, given I’m a bit claustrophobic, is running with 50,000 other people come race day.
My excitement about the Sun Run appears to be infectious. I’ve already recruited another mother in my neighbourhood to join me in the training program. You may even see a decked-out Courier crew running in our trademark red T-shirts. On board so far are O’Connor, sports reporter Megan Stewart, her parents, myself and freelancer Jennifer Thuncher. With a bit more nudging, other newsroom staffers may also slip into their running shoes.
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