Name: Eddie Kaufholz
Age: 41
Hometown: Gainesville, FL
Running time: 15 months
Why I run: To recover my body and seek lasting health
I was determined not to worry about turning 40. At 39, I had everything a person could wish for – love, a career, my friends’ Disney + login – but a few weeks before my 40th birthday, an existential ray fell: What did I do in the first half of my life? … I am not healthy, so at this rate, I have already spent half my life? … I am more than unhealthy. I have 304 pounds of non-muscles. … I have to do something, now, today. … Gee, I never really worked out, never practiced a sport or did anything remotely physical. What should I do?
… Healthy people seem to run a lot. Maybe I will do that?
And then I threw on my lawn mower, put on my “I Gave Blood!” and hit the road with a race plan that I discovered on Google: “Race plan for a new runner and I never really ran, so don’t give me a plan that will kill me, I’m serious. ”
Active’s “Couch to 5K” app promised to train me to run 5 km in 90 days. That goal seemed impossible, but following a robot trainer in the app for a single 30-minute workout seemed feasible in the meantime.
Now, where I want the story to go from here, is that I ran that first day and something came to life in me. I mean that I discovered the Olympian asleep inside me, or at least the person who does not ironically put a “Eat. Sleeps. Run. Repeat. “Sticker on your car. I wanted to fall so deeply in love with running that the health benefits would emerge as I pursued my new passion. That’s a zillion percent, it’s not my story.
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My first training run almost broke me. The robot trainer guided me through basic interval training: a five-minute warm-up, 20 minutes alternating light running and walking, then a five-minute cooling walk. I could feel my calf muscles stretching, my quadriceps burning and my * ahem * glutes put into action after a long workday on the couch. Even my shoulders and back alerted me to his presence.
Later, I would realize that running is a sport for the whole body, but that first day, I interpreted my muscles coming out of hibernation as a physical breakdown of five alarms. My mind was running at full processor speed: Am I hurting myself? I can not do it. The app says I have to run for 30 seconds – I JUST DONE THIS FOR A MINUTE! My feet are burning. This is normal? And am I going to have to go to the bathroom in the woods?
My running journey was (is) 99% mental. The first few days were so difficult simply because everything was new. I didn’t know if I had run a mile or 1/10 of a mile. I was a newborn foal struggling trying to figure out what my legs could do. And, behind this psychology, there was a deeper challenge: I was a man with morbid obesity, before a boy with morbid obesity, trying to win some athletics a few weeks before turning 40. In my life, I never did anything remotely athletic, so why would that change now? Since that first run, the message I kept trying to escape was: I can not do it.
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That is why the first day is the most difficult: there are physical and mental factors the size of a planet colliding. The same. Time. Seriously – and I say this with all due respect to the editors of this article – running was the absolute worst. And sometimes it still is.
However, despite the fact that after those 30 minutes my legs were shaking and I was a sweaty puddle of lactic acid, I still felt a small, strange and unknown sensation: pride.
That day, for the first time, I took significant steps to improve my body and mind. The application said: “Good job!” and gave me a Pavlovian check mark next to Day 1, and to my surprise, that sense of accomplishment compelled me to do the second race. Then a third. Then it’s worth a week and then a month. One month! I had no idea what I was probably doing for the first six months, but I gave myself over to the robot’s app and trusted, without asking questions.
Eddie’s best equipment for new runners
Spoiler alert: running is never easier. But after a while, as you begin to understand the importance of pace, heart rate and relaxed breathing, your return on investment increases. What I used to do in 30 minutes is night and day than what I can do now in the same amount of time. And the mental panic, the feeling that my body is literally exploding and I can’t do that, has diminished a little, because with each race I prove, over and over again, that I can very well be an athlete.
During that 5 km training plan, I went from the aforementioned train accident to the guy who checked the weather in advance and woke up early to enjoy the dawn. My running habit led to other healthy habits: I started drinking more water, getting enough sleep and eating carefully. At one point, I even allowed myself to dream of reaching the end of my 5 km plan and actually running 5 km. Nonstop! I could do that?
It turns out that I could. Running alone along the familiar paths of my neighborhood, I ran that friendly 5K solo for COVID with all my strength. I am sure that no physical event will mean so much to me. For 40 years, I couldn’t have imagined that moment. Still, there I was, a real-life runner, crying a lot as my wife and daughters cheered for me on the start / finish line in our garage. Certainly these tears had something to do with dopamine and endorphins, but in reality, they came from the realization that I had recovered my body and entered a new season of significant and stimulating health.
I ended the year running 551.2 miles – including another 5 km, 10 km and even a half marathon – but my running journey did not start with these achievements in mind. Nor did it start with a plan to lose 86 pounds that would change life. These goals would seem very high and elusive, impossible. It was possible to decide, one day, to go around and do something new.
The nuances of the race will find you exactly when you need them. You will discover the perfect equipment as your needs arise. Your pace and distance will improve as you earn miles. And you don’t even have to advertise on social media that you’re “training for half #EatSleepRun!” All of these things will come. Today, let yourself feel those muscles getting sore and strong. Allow yourself to feel the pain and pride that come when you leave and return on the local path. And let the work you did today remind you that you can do difficult, surprising and impressive things.
Actually, I don’t know if I like to run, but I like to live – and running gives me life.
If you have cut shoes, tie them up. See you on the trail.
Eddie is a podcast writer and producer. He is also a co-presenter of Annie and Eddie keep talking. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.
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