Reading, Blogging, and Learning to Check the Weather Report

I have put together a list of three activities that I would like to do this summer while I have what feels like an unlimited amount of time.

1. Read.

2. Blog more often.

3. Run a 5K by August.

Originally I wanted to simply lose weight this summer.  I decided that if that was my only goal, I would most likely drive myself crazy trying to do it.  Instead I came up with the list above that aims more at general health, physical and otherwise.

#1 began when I started reading Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol.  It is so far excellent, and slowly becoming just as good as Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code.  I would still be continuing in that one except Caitlin bought and read Bossypants by Tina Fey and I have now picked that up after hearing her cackle while reading it faster than she has read most other books.  It is Tina Fey to the very core.

#2 is being worked on as I write.

#3 is the one that I began this morning and is the reason #2 is happening sooner than I expected.  I found a program that is aimed at preparing someone to go from their couch to running a 5K in 9 weeks.  I have my doubts, but am attempting it anyway.  For no reason I can identify, I have always wanted to be a runner.  And now that I have more time to spare than ever before, I am going to fulfill that dream (?).  Of course, my spare time happens to coincide with near record setting high temperatures in the swamp that is Mississippi.

So, naturally, I went for my first run this morning at 7 am.  

Twenty minutes later I am no more than 30 yards from my front door and sitting on the ground trying not to pass out and/or throw up.  Throwing up was less likely since I hadn't eaten breakfast yet and thus I didn't have anything in my system to expel.  The passing out was very likely., however.  I had forgotten a water bottle and already was bad at staying hydrated regularly.  Oh, and it was one thousand degrees outside with two hundred percent humidity.  Passing out sounded great.

I hope you are learning a lesson as you read this.  The moral of the story is:  Don't run outside, unhydrated, water-bottle-less, unathletic, out of shape, over ambitious, well-read, devilishly handsome in Mississippi in June.

(For those of you that might be worried, I survived.  The Today Show revived me as I collapsed on our couch for an hour after I hobbled home.)

Needless to say, reaching these three goals this summer may be difficult, but I am as excited as ever to see exactly how far I need to run in order for me to pass out cold.