Working Up the Speed

Week 2

It’s the second week of my personal training regime. So far so good. Ok, I admit, most mornings I dread climbing out of bed in the darkness. I’m usually still wobbling when I attempt to put my legs through my running shorts. Each morning I feel my way down the stairs to switch on the light, only to realize how early it still is. I grab a small bite, usually 1/3 of a banana with peanut butter, fill up my water bottle, and off I go down the stairs. The whole time all these are happening, I doubt I could pull through the run.

Thankfully, I’m usually wrong.

Run, Rachel, Run

License: Livestrong Foundation, livestrong.com

Asthma kept me inactive as a child. I vividly remembered one afternoon more than 20 years ago when all the neighboring kids crowded in our living room playing card games with my cousins, having the time of their lives, while I lay on the chair gasping for air…. After I immigrated to the U.S., I inched out of asthmatic terror, plus I had an inhaler to keep wheezing under control. Life was easier because I could breath. As I grew older, I started to notice how much I wished I could run. Watching athletes run on TV commercials and races always lifted me in some spiritual way, however indescribable that feeling may be at the time. I attempted to run, mimicked the moves of athletes, pretending I could fly. I could, however, never run longer than a stretch of a couple of houses without losing my breath. Pretty sad, I know!