Running and hopefully not standing still

This year I celebrate my 37th birthday.  Kelly and I have discussed that with 37 (she turns 37 today) we can't say that we're in our mid 30's anymore.  37 is clearly late 30's. Which means that 40 is going to creep up on us like tomorrow or something.  It also means that our 20's, and whatever hold over ideations of being young and invincible, if they haven't already gone, are going and will be gone as soon as we embrace reality.

For me, part of that embracing reality means a real assessment of where I am, and where I want to be with my physical health.  I think overall, I'm healthy.  I'm breathing, and have the ability to stand and get around. I’m alive and mobile which is good but I know that there are areas that need improvement.

I can push, pull, lift, throw and otherwise manipulate a multitude of objects of various weights and configurations, even exceeding my own weight in some cases.  Though, because of the leisure like life I’ve come to enjoy and be accustomed to, I’m not as strong as I once was and the manipulation of the multitude of objects seems to be more and more difficult compared to what it once was.  I used to also be able to run (or jog, though run seems the more en vogue term these days) a lot longer distances for a longer duration than I can today.  I also weigh many pounds more than I would like- the short of it is that I’m fat and not as in shape as I want to be…and it is on me to change it if I want it changed.

I have a couple choices here.  I can pretend that it is either not that bad, pretend that it will magically get fixed or some other form of make believe that in the end doesn’t help me right the situation.  I can also face the reality and decide that I’m going to do something about it…tomorrow, or some other mythical time period.  Or, I can decide right now to do something about it. 

So I did, and I continue to do something about it.  Yesterday I completed the first week of a 16 week training plan that I hope will prepare me to run in a 10k race in August of this year.  I would love to sit around, read blogs and stories of how to get ready and have that magically change me but the simple truth is, that unless I get out and actually train I’m going to go back to that pretend land that results in a very sad reality in the long run. 

So there it is, I’ve chosen today to do something.  When enough todays come and I make the right choice, I’ll run that race and not just stand still on that hot, hot day.