Getting started...

I've always wanted to run a marathon. Never thought about it too seriously though. Until this year. I had started taking a Boot Camp class at the local rec center in January 2010. I signed up for 4 days a week, Monday through Thursday, from 6pm to 7pm. I'll never forget the first class. After the instructor introduced himself and told us what was in store for us ( and after I stopped drooling because he was pretty built ) he told us " go run a mile ! "on the indoor track. Our first day of class was inside because it was actually raining in Nevada. 14 laps equaled a mile. I had run all through high school, on cross country, indoor track and track teams. All 4 years, all 3 seasons. Wasn't the fastest, but I was determined, and really liked it. Did the mile and 2 mile races in track for meets. Thought nothing of running both of those in the same afternoon, just liked to run.
I hadn't run in years, and the thought of running a mile made me so nervous. I was out of shape, wasn't happy with my weight, and had been lazy for the past few years. I started that mile, and just took it nice and easy. I finished it, and then I was hooked again. Of course I couldn't walk that whole week after doing those classes. But I stuck with it, and my running felt better as the classes went by. I had convinced 3 of my co workers to join the class with me. They did 2 days a week, and we all shared in the pain and the drooling over the instructor. He was hot, and he made you work. I needed someone to yell at me and tell me to work out. I did that 8 week session, and then another 8 week session. Then two 5 week sessions in the summer.We usually ran a mile each class, sometimes he had us run 2 miles. In July a co worker asked me if I wanted to do the Las Vegas Marathon with him. I said if he was going to do it I would do it. So he got a book on marathon training and we printed out the training schedule. 16 weeks of training.
We had to train for our training. The first few weeks we just had to run 30 minutes to build up a base. By that time another co worker decided to join us in our marathon voyage. So there are 3 of us in this journey together. We check in with each other, make sure we're all doing the runs we're supposed to be doing. Our first week of official training started on 8/16/10. We have to run 4 days a week. This week consisted of having to do 3 miles, 4 miles, 3 miles and the 4th day 5 miles. We decided to do something a little different for our 5 mile run.