I'm not a runner. My parents both ran marathons in the 1970's before it was cool. My bother ran cross-country in high school. This said, I've never gotten into the whole running-thing. Then it became cool. Everybody was running marathons and half-marathons. All of my friends were supporting various causes and I was sending them money to support their charity and their running.

I felt like this meant that I didn't have to take up running. My friends were doing it for me. This is not to say that I am a total laze-about either.

I got to the guy 3-4 times a week. I walk as much as I can. I almost never drive to the grocery store, the library or the drycleaners. I can walk so I do. I like walking it lets me really get a feel for a neighborhood and frankly, some of my favorite bars, cafes and shops are places that I discovered walking around.

So this is a big build up to say, I've decided to run a <a href="http://seattlemag.com/article/earth-day-run-2014" target="_blank">5k in April for Earth Day</a>. I've never run a 5K before. I figured that it would be good for me to do something new.

I looked up a training program routine for beginners. It's six weeks long and seemed totally do-able. Today after work, I thought: I'll do Day 1.
<ul>
	<li>Day 1: Walk briskly for 1 mile. Run 2 minutes every half mile until you read 3.5 miles. Walk .5 mile.</li>
</ul>
I got home, changed my clothes, put on my running shoes and thought: I wonder if I can run a 5k without stopping? How fast could I do it?

Given the fact that I don't really run, I had no idea. So I decided that I would run what is probably the least interesting route ever but one that was easy to judge the distance. I ran from my house on 24th down 65th Street to Phinney Ave N. and back. This was 5.5K. I ran the whole thing aside from a very intimidating hill in the middle of my run where I ran a bloc, walked a block.

I did the whole thing in 44 minutes which is about 13 minutes a mile. I am clearly not going to be winning any races at this speed but I did it. I also didn't die. So, there's that.

Actually, I finished feeling pretty good about things and I still do.