First Kilted mile, at age 48!

[Grunthos]

I ran my first Kilted Mile race ever, along with my son, two days ago at the Portland Highland Games in Portland, Oregon.

I spent several decades letting myself get fat and lazy. About 3 years ago my wife and I decided we wanted to live and started exercising and eating healthier food. Well, she was ahead of me in figuring it out, and I realized she was right. I started exercising at the gym with a variety of weights and machines, but no real running.

At last year's games I decided I would run in this year's race. At that time I could only run about one city block, gasping for air.

My wife and I started training using the Couch-to-5k program. It is a step-by-step plan that takes you from running 60 seconds up to running a full 5K distance, in small increments over a period of several months. It has really worked well for us. My wife has an old knee injury that has been difficult for her, but she still has been able to run more than she expected by using the C-to-5k.

Three months ago I ran a mile for the first time in 30 years, in 10 minutes. Over the last 3 month's I've been working on improving it.

At the games I ran the mile in 7:10, my best mile time so far since I was a teenager. I even came in second place in the Men's 40-49 category. My son ran with me, and he can out-run me, but he paced me in the race and we had a good time together.

It was really hot at the games: 95 deg F = 35 deg C, but it felt great to achieve it!

My wife has also gone from hardly-able-to-run a year ago, to running a mile in 9:23 a week ago. Her knee wasn't cooperating on the Games day, but she is still happy with her progress so far.

Next up: My wife and I are going to run a 5k soon with a few of our adult kids. I just heard there's a Portland Kilted 5K in September