Run baby run

I decided about a month ago that I would start running.  I hate running, but I feel I need to add cardio to my life.  It's hard to continue to convince myself that yoga and the occasional dance class will suffice a exercise when I am constantly being told by every researcher, trainer, and professor in my master's program that it, in fact, is not.  I'm well aware of the benefits of cardiovascular training: increased metabolic rate, increased muscle tone, decreased fat composition, decreased heart rate, decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, better mood, etc etc.  I am also, now, well aware that yoga and dance do not provide the necessary duration or intensity necessary for them to be considered good cardiovascular training.  However, I have avoided activities like running, swimming, cycling because I find them torturous and incredibly boring.

So, why running?  It's free, it's one of the more efficient ways of getting in my cardio, I can do it anywhere, it's high impact so it increases my bone density, and I can catch up on the news while doing it.  All good reasons.  Maybe one day I'll even come to enjoy running, like when people in an arranged marriage eventually fall in love.

Now here's the masochistic part.  I haven't started running yet (though I did buy shoes and a whole bunch of socks), but have registered for my first half-marathon (in October).  I've also told as many people as possible that I will be participating in this half marathon so that I can't back out without being heavily shamed.  Why?  Because if I don't have a goal in mind, then I won't start, nor will I continue to torture myself with this boring, repetitive exercise.  I've been fit all of my life.  I mean, as an adult, I've been fit as part of my occupation: as a dancer and dance teacher, then as a yoga instructor, now as an exercise physiology grad student.  I'm also just vain enough to be willing to torture my self for the sake of wanting to look hot.  I should be able to do this, if not for my heart and lungs then at least for my ass and legs.  In fact, if I can prepare myself for the MCAT (4 hours 20 minutes of testing, 4 hours and 50 minutes total) in three months, then surely I can train for a half marathon in five months.  So, that's the plan.  Start doing a new form of exercise that I've never liked, train for a race that I know next to nothing about, and be ready to run 13.2 miles in a real race in five months.  Excellent.