The Chemist At Bradford Academy: In Which the Chemist Runs

Way back in January 2012 I made a commitment to changing my diet and exercising regularly. After reading Wheat Belly, I gave up eating wheat and most other grains. I guess I could be classified as almost paleo. Since that time my health has improved a lot. The constant joint pain is gone. My anemia is better and my iron stores are almost where they should be. My knees still predict the weather, but I digress. I have much more energy. I'm not bursting with energy, but I no longer fight my way through a haze of fatigue each day. My last check-up was good. My total cholesterol is down 30 points and my ratios, according to the doctor, are fantastic. I'm wearing a size smaller though I still haven't lost any weight.

That brings me to exercise. Easier said than done. The closest gym is 20 minutes away. I couldn't justify the time, gas, or gym fees. Doing exercise videos with the kids around is nerve wracking. They like to point and giggle. We also had an ancient treadmill. I started with 30 minutes of walking. Slowly I increased to a slow jog, a very slow jog. As the summer of 2012 approached I had the tread mill going as fast as it could which was only a little over 4 mph. Then it happened--the squeal of death. I was without my machine. God provided me with a this baby. I found it at the Habitat Store for only $50. Happy birthday to me.

They said it made a bad noise around 6 mph, but I figured I would never get it going that fast.

I kept at it through the summer. Then one day a friend from co-op said that she and her daughter were going to run the Color Me Rad 5K in October, and would anyone like to join her. I signed up with the Crafter and Wild Thing. We made it through the clouds of colored corn starch. I had to walk several times and both children beat me handily. The race wasn't timed, so I'm not sure how we did. I do know that we will not be doing another color run. It was too dusty and crowded.

Fall turned into winter. Christmas came and sickness came with it. I didn't run for almost two months. Then around the end of January, a Facebook friend of mine asked if we could go running together. I said sure. Panic. I hopped back on my trust treadmill and almost managed two very slow miles. We finally managed to get together the second week of February. We ran two miles in 25 minutes. It was a record for both of us. Feeling confident with a good time and a new running buddy, I signed up for my 2nd 5K. This one would be timed.

As it turned out, my new running buddy had some job changes and our schedules became completely incompatible. I was on my own. I started doing some longer runs near home as well as increasing my speed for a minute or two on the treadmill. I found out that it does indeed make a troubling noise when it gets up to 6mph. All was going well until I got food poisoning 11 days before the race. I couldn't exercise at all for 4 days. I wasn't feeling confident at all, but race day waits for no one. I think I did very well. I only walked twice on the bigger hills. My time was 37 minutes 48 seconds.