Not sure about this...

There’s a young mom at my church who seems so fun. I’ve enjoyed getting to know her at the Wednesday morning book study, I love having her cute son in the toddler room on Sunday mornings, and I am wild about her sweater collection. I’d really wanted to get to know her better, but after her most recent Facebook post I think the family dinner I’d hoped we’d share is history. And to think she’s a deaconess.

What could she have done to cause such upset? She posted a crazy invitation for people to join her in running a 10K. She said she decided to commemorate her 30th birthday with a 10k race and she thought it would be fun for her friends to run it, too, to celebrate her birthday.

In a great moment of weakness I emailed her to say I was interested. I’d had the same goal when I turned 30 but never actually ran a race. I’d thought about it for my 35th but didn’t do anything more than think about it. And since my 40th is coming up in April I thought I should give it a try. After all, Rebecca turned 10 this week so my, “I’m still trying to lose the baby weight,” excuse is just plain ridiculous. And has been for, oh, nine years.

As soon as I clicked, “Send,” the gravity of the situation hit me. I have no business running to my mailbox, much less running a 10K. But it was too late; the cat was out of the bag. Before I even had time to formulate an excuse to get out of it, my friend emailed back saying, “I think you really need to do this,” and, “I really want you to run this 10K.” And she sent a link to the training schedule.

Dangity dang dang dang.

I downloaded the training schedule. Day one: Two mile run at an easy pace. That was day one! I was hoping for something more like, “Walk from your bedroom to the kitchen, pour yourself a diet Coke and call it a day.” Or at least, “Walk for 20 minutes.” Two miles to start seemed crazy and completely undoable for this very out-of-shape body.

But something about it intrigued me. I’m tired of knowing I’ve wanted to do something but haven’t made the sacrifices necessary to reach the goal. And lots of other friends from church signed up to run the race, so I decided I’d give it a go.

In another moment of what can only be described as an out-of-body experience, I joined the YMCA. For the past two days I have found myself on a treadmill, huffing and puffing in an attempt to get this pathetic body in some semblance of shape so it doesn’t drop dead when I actually run the race. Well, I’ll probably walk the majority of the thing if the past two days’ work out is any indication. And I don’t think I can make the full 10K; I’ll be pleased to finish the 5K. Heck, I’ll be ecstatic if I finish the 5K. I’m fairly certain I need more than two months to get ready for anything more than 3 miles. The 6.2 will have to wait.

But dinner with my soon-to-be 30 year old friend and her family doesn’t have to wait, now that she's won me over. Besides, we have training to discuss. And she really needs to spill the beans on where she gets her sweaters.