Today is the day that I started training for my first ever half marathon. I got encouraged (read:coerced into it) by my son in law, who is a runner. I bought fancy running shoes and even signed up for a fancy running app. The race is in Sept of 2026, so I have about nine months to train. I figure that’s enough time to make a human, so it should be enough time to transform a pudgy old man with bad knees into a jogger. (Runner, is a completely different story!)

I will approach this with the same attitude I approach my recovery. I don’t necessarily look forward to the hard work; I don’t necessarily look forward to the changing of longstanding bad habits; but I look forward to the positive outcome. So today I ran a mile. Well, to be fair, I jogged about .4 of a mile, then walked for about .1 of a mile, then jogged the rest. The net result was a time of 11:57 for my first mile. My theoretic target was 15 minutes, So I am pleased. The first step is the hardest…

Until you try the second step. The reality is that it is all difficult in some way. I made myself do it today and that was a good start, but if I fail to follow that up with more work tomorrow, it’s kind of a waste of time. So tomorrow morning I’m gonna lace up, then…

–Rise Up!!