Chub Rub

Yup.  Sorry to be so frank but chub rub was a pretty real part of any swift movement I would make for a lot of years.  I am the most unlikely person to train for anything beyond an aspiring food athlete.  I used to really like me a hotdog or 12.

I used to weigh like 2 bills and change until exactly 3 years ago when I had gastric bypass surgery at Tufts Medical Center (love that place!) and lost 100 lbs in months.  The change was rather rapid.  I quickly realized the walks up Beacon Hill that were made with labored breaths, perspiration, and extreme effort was just jaunts.  Everywhere I went I was speed walking in part because there was no longer any chub rub.  Walking without abutting body parts is delightful. Pretty soon swift walking turned in a little jog then a little jog turned into an idea....maybe I could run?

At that point, I had never run a mile in my life except for the required prepubescent Presidential Fitness Tests. It was a cruel public spectacle that pitted the slowest boy Zach vs. me a chubby, brace-face, with a sense of humor.  I made a deal with he gym teacher if I beat Zach; I never had to run that green mile again.  Zach was a head until the 4th lap when I used all my sweat reserves to surge with a red face and a quick confidence puff of my albuterol inhaler, I overtook Zach.  My face must have shown the pain I no doubt felt from my chubby arms pushing hard and chaffing.  Cue Chariots of Fire as I beat Zach by a roll and won the day to be greeted with a resounding applause from my peers (actual student athletes) and waifs of baking chicken fingers from the caf.  What a day!  And no more laps and chapped arms for this gal.

25 years later, I basically returned to my birth weight and got the idea that I might like to run.  The suggestion that I train to run a 5K (coincidentally the last time I dealt with kilometers was the on the PSAT taken about the same time as my dramatic race against chub rub and Zach) came from a few different sources - my friend Nick, a marathoner named Jesse, and my close friends and constant cheerleaders, Andrew and Malisa who somehow also made me a vegetarian during the same conversation or conversion, should I say?

Anyway that is how running started about 3 years ago.  Now another journey begins on how to turn my paltry 7 mile Falmouth Road Race into a near 30 mile run through Metro West.  If only I could facebook Zach and get him to show up and chase me up Heartbreak Hill :)