Jogging

Almost two years ago, Ailish convinced me to try jogging. This was a pretty monumental task because I hadn’t run at all since grade 10 in high school, and then only when forced. I was out of shape, hated sweating, and was rather dubious about the whole idea. And we had a wedding to plan.

Ailish, true to her nature, didn’t give a single minute of thought to any of that. Not only were we going to start jogging, but we were going to run a half marathon in the spring.

The first time out, I could hardly run one hundred metres without gasping for air. It took weeks until I could comfortably run five kilometres, and longer still to break 10. Focused as she was on the half-marathon, Ailish often decided it was a better plan to go out for dinner and a couple of drinks, and who was I to complain? Still, come April, 2010, Ailish, Siobhan (Ailish’s sister), and I, we all ran in the Edmonton Police Half Marathon. And we all finished. My time was 2:15:21.

After Ailish died, a year to the day after our first half marathon, I needed some reason to leave the house. My friend, Nicholas, convinced me to sign up for a training camp thing. So for the next sixteen weeks, I ran once again. I still hated every minute. I still don’t like sweating. I still think running is dubious. But once again, I ran a half marathon with my friends, Shane and Nicholas. My time was 2:07:45.

01
August 24th, 2011 9:07 PM

I’ll never run … but I’ll cheer you on. :)

Go, Chris, Go!

Awesome job cutting so much time off your run. I’m impressed.

02
Judi Hale
August 26th, 2011 12:05 PM

As ever, Chris, I’m so proud of you and not least for running when you really would rather be in front of a computer. You inherit this trait honestly from me!

03
Christopher Thompson
August 26th, 2011 2:59 PM

I assure you, any praise goes to Ailish. It’s purely her drive and absolute disregard for my lack of running ability that got me running at all.

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