The tortoise

I don’t know which is harder, writing or running.

For the last six weeks or so, I’ve been training to run a 10K race.  When I was in high school, I was lucky if I could complete a mile in 15 minutes.  I specialized then in being skinny/flabby.  I ate what I wanted, never exercised, maintained 125 pounds, but was in terrible shape.  After I put on weight at the ripe old age of twenty-five, I decided, at twenty-nine (we’ll just ignore those intervening years) that maybe I shouldn’t just be thin, but fit too.  So I started exercising.  It was hard.  I was thrilled when I got my mile time to ten minutes.  Of course, I started thinking I could run more than one mile.

I started training for a 5K and did two last year.  The one five mile race I tried kicked my ass.  So when one of my trainers started a 10K clinic, I signed up.  Am I the fastest?  Not by a long shot, but it’s okay being last.  A lot of the other slow (not as slow as me) runners dropped out.  But I’m hanging in there.  Saturday I was able to run six miles in an hour.  Even though I can run a faster mile - less than eight minutes - I can maintain ten minute miles for a longer period of time.

When I finished my run this week, everyone else was done, sipping water, and eating oranges.  I may be last, but I haven’t quit.
This week my romance writer’s group has dedicated this week to writing, writing, and more writing.  So, I move on to a harder task writing a book.  I always start out with the best intentions.  It’s like a pop essay quiz: Imagine if these characters encounter this situation . . . discuss . . . .

Ideas abound, I take notes, then comes the hard part, putting words (that make sense) on paper.  I’m on page 63 of my current novel (about a third of the way through), and I’m trying to get at least a draft done by the first of August to pitch it as part of a series at a writer’s conference.

To say it’s slow going would be an understatement.  But if like running, I keep at it, I’ll get to the finish line, even if I’m not first.

~ by foleydog on May 12, 2008.