My first outdoor run

I've been spending a lot of time with the treadmill these last few months, and frankly, we're getting a little sick of each other. I don't like the way it collects dust even though I use it every day, nor do I like the squeak it makes when my left foot makes contact. I also can't touch it with my hands while I'm on it, because it shocks me like I just stuck my finger in a socket. I'm quite certain the treadmill is annoyed with me as well. I get all sweaty, and I shout profanity every time I nearly fall off it, which is pretty often.

So, I thought it was time for my first ever outdoor run. It's been freezing here, but on Saturday it got up to 50 degrees. I put on all my running clothes and checked myself out in the mirror. I looked quite a bit like this:


Okay, maybe not this bad, but pretty darn close. I had on a similar headband, but it wasn't yellow. I guess that was really all I had in common with this guy. But it gave me a good excuse to put a picture of Michael Cera in my weight loss blog. That's not something you're going to see every day.

Anyway, I started my run at about 2:30 pm. At the urging of my girlfriend and my mother, I took my cellphone with me, as well as my driver's license. In the event of death brought on by cardiac arrest, at least they'd know who I was. I had a playlist all set up in my new iPod just for running. Oh, did I mention my iPod has a built-in stopwatch?

Running outside is way harder than running on the treadmill. I had to stop and walk quite a few times. But, it was really cool to watch all the cars pass me an know they probably weren't thinking "man, look at that fatty jogging! What does she think she's doing?" I know, I worry way too much about what others think. But, that was really the main reason I didn't do much outdoor exercise before now. Pretty sad, I guess.


It was a pretty great feeling when I jogged up to my parents' doorstep and rang my doorbell looking like Rocky running up the stairs. I did 4.1 miles in 50 minutes, which averages out to be about 4.9 mph. WOOT!