Dujanitor wrote: I know exactly how you feel. I was 70 pounds overweight, and lost 60 of it when I decided to start jogging. That was 2 years ago. I love this sport. I'm not in any type of competition with others but with myself. Just last weekend I ran my very first ever in my life 15 miler! I am striving to do my very first ever in my life marathon in December of this year. I am no spring chicken, either. I'll be 49 years old in September.

Wow. Congrats ... marathon. Very impressive.

P.S. I run 10K's pretty frequently and did one 1/2 marathon. I was inspired by a lot of posters on this message board, and ran last night where normally I would have taken the night off (since I did a 10K Saturday). I ran better and faster than I had any reason to hope.

Not too impressive? You lost 60 pounds in nine months and ran your first marathon. If that's not impressive (and inspiring), I don't know what is. Even if it took you 12 hours, you still did it!

This "time" thing is what has caused me to step out of the my first 5K in July. I made the mistake of joining a team that is very competitive, and want to finish the race in under 20 minutes. I was okay when they said 30 minutes - to me it was doable because I was already doing a 12 minute mile 40 pounds over weight and out of shape ( I am only 5' tall, so 40 pounds extra has killed my knees). But there is no way I am going to make it in 15-20 minutes.

I am still walking/jogging, and gettting back into shape. I would like to do a 5K and a 10K, but I am not up for the "race" part yet!

You should be more positive. You finished a marathon it doesn't matter how long it took but that you finished it. I would love to say those words one day.

You are not alone. I myself have been trying to become a runner for at least 2 years. I start

and stop. This week I started running again and feel great. I had a little set back(kidney stone) but it came and

went quick. So tonight I'll be back at it. Keep up the good work.

First off, don't be doing a 5K.  That's over 3 miles.  I NEVER ran a day in my life.  I hated running so much I signed up for gymnastics class instead of PE class in high school.  I heard you didn't have to run if you took it.  Go figure.  I became a gymnast!!  Never had to run.  Cool huh?  Well, about a year ago, I began running for the first time ever.  First I began to run about 15 minutes.  After a few months I was up to 25, then 30.  No sprinting, just jogging for the most part.  The past few months I've cranked it up to between 40 and 45 minutes.  I began running about 3 times a week and eventually built it up to 6 days a week which I do without fail at the present. Just ran my first 10K today!!  I found that by using a treadmill, I could start to concentrate on pacing myself and found that eventually I could do about a 10 minute mile.  I usually start out at about a 12 minute mile and after about 10 minutes I start going faster and eventually do about a 10 minute mile pace.  Lately, I do the last 10 minutes at around 6 and a half on the machine speed and finish just over a speed of 7.  The last 10  minutes I do at about a 9 minute mile pace.  What you have to do is ease into your running and over time just build up your endurance time as opposed to speed.  The speed will come later though my goal isn't speed, its just doing a good 45 minute continual pounding on my heart.  So in a year's time I've gone from no running to being able to run 45 minutes which is just about 4.5 miles.  I actually have heart disease as well.  I take meds to prevent my heart from going out of sinus rhythm.  I'm 55 and lost get this.......30lbs in about 8 months after I began to run.  One more thing.  You need to set a reason why you're running.  For me its a matter of looking good as opposed to slovenly and also to keep my heart strong so I can outlive my wife.  There's so many fat slobs out there.  I DONT want to look like them and not even be able to see my belt buckle which is what was happening to me as I got older and had no excercise program.  If I can do it you can too!!