Out of Body Experience

Today I am feeling like I have had an out of body experience.

This morning I discovered the joy of running with tunes. I don't have an MP3 player (yet! Hint Hint D! My birthday is just around the corner!), but I found ear buds for my phone this morning and I have some songs on there - so I took my phone along for the run. It's like I stop fighting my brain when the music is playing - I just keep going. I'm not thinking about "OK - if I can just get to that mailbox over there I can walk for a little bit." or "You can do this - just a little farther." It's just the music. And I think I go faster, too - in time with the music.

So this morning I thought I would try to add a little distance to my run since it was going so well. I wasn't sure until I left for work just how far I had gone. When I left for work I drove my route to check the mileage. 4 Miles! Without stopping!

Did I just say that? I ran 4 miles this morning without stopping? WHOA! Wait - who said that?

It is totally like an out of body experience! And, of course, now my body is like "Um, hello? Just what do you think you are doing? I don't know if you got the memo, but we don't run!"

You have to understand - I did track and field in high school - emphasis on the FIELD. My coach always made us run to warm up - even if we weren't "runners" per se. And I hated every second of running. Running a mile was a major ordeal. I had awful asthma in high school. Each year I would end up practically passing out at the beginning of the season from a bad asthma attack. Field events were my game - shot put, javelin, high jump - whatever. But I didn't run. If I did run my coach would put me in a short race - 100 or 200 and I absolutely hated it. Once he put me in a 400 and when I finally crossed the finish line I punched him. I was like "Don't ever do that to me again!" Once my boyfriend graduated from high school and wasn't doing track anymore - I didn't do track anymore. If I am completely honest - I only did it to spend time with him (we had a couple of track meets that were out of state where we were gone from school for several days - or we would get out of school early for meets). I was so glad not to do it my senior year.

So to find myself running - actually wanting to run - so much so that I am going to do a 5K ... it's surreal! My husband just keeps shaking his head at me. My mom just looks at me in stunned silence like "Who are you and what have you done with my daughter?" I expected a lot of things to change in my life from having this surgery, never ever in my wildest dreams was this one of them.