One for one

Some of you may already know me, but to others of you I’m new here… so first, an introduction:

I’m Emily.

I’m a third-year law student just two months shy of graduation day. With my nearly six-figures of debt in tow and the goal of my lifetime just out of reach, I’m on the hunt for my dream job as a criminal defense lawyer somewhere South of the Mason-Dixon Line. I’m also training for my very first half marathon, The Flying Pig in Cincinnati, which is (somehow!) just under six weeks away. After that, the bar exam awaits in North Carolina, and with it comes 12-hr study days and pots and pots of coffee. Oh, and I’m planning a wedding… it seems that if I play my cards right and actually pull this all off, I’ll manage to get my 13.1, my J.D., Esq., and Mrs. all in a span of less than six months.

Busy? Yes.
Anxious? Yes.
Tired already? Definitely yes.
Really, really excited? Absolutely.

I get asked questions like these a lot lately. So I decided to write about them; I decided to write about my training tips and trip-ups (advanced warning though, caveat emptor, it will probably be much more of the latter than the former), and the legal trials and tribulations I’ll inevitably run into as I take on 13.1 miles, the last weeks of law school, the bar exam, and a big Midwestern wedding.

I never, ever imagined I would ever be a runner. A lawyer, yes—after I got my Master’s degree in Sociology, I became somehow enamored with all things penal (the study of punishment … not the other peen-al ya’ll are thinking of, you gutter minds you). Sometime after touring prisons and studying them, I decided to go big or go home and get in the trenches. Criminal defense work seemed like something I could actually do. Running? That seemed like something someone would have to force me to do, and it would have to be its own form of punishment to succeed.

Then, my stepmom started running last year. She always invited me to run with her but I didn’t quite understand the point. Run… for fun? Then my dad started running. THEN, they did the half-marathon Flying Pig last year. My parents. Running. FOR FUN. And they got healthy and looked great. But, I was still skeptical. They ran in RAIN. AND SNOW! And ice. And HEAT. Fun!?

So… when August 2010 rolled around and I found myself trying on wedding dresses in sizes I wasn’t happy about, and my stepmom’s suggestion to run with her actually sounded like a good idea.

Okay, I lied. At first, it sounded like a terrible idea to me but I told her I would give it a shot and see what happened. I like to think I’ll try anything once but this took some convincing. She encouraged me oh so gently by mentioning that the training groups had happy hours, and that for each mile I learned to run, that would be one light beer I’d definitely earned.

One for one.

And so, in the 90-degree August swamp that is Cincinnati, I started training with a local training group. I couldn’t run for more than 2 minutes at a time for a solid three months. It took me a LONG time to be able to run a whole 3 miles, so we didn’t drink that many beers either. But, in those early training days, I knew that if I just kept pushing, it wasn’t far to the bar, and I had definitely earned the small reward.

Here I sit 8 months later. I definitely should have started blogging at the beginning of my running journey—I’ve learned so much—but I figure that later is better than not at all. The farthest I’ve ran so far is 8.03 miles in an embarrassing, embarrassing long time (see how I learned that later is better?). As for race tallies, I’m building up my repertoire slowly but surely: I just ran my first 10k last weekend, and since August, I’ve run four 5ks. My times are still slow but are improving with each race.

For sure, I think I’ve come a long way… but I hope you join me as I make the final push through these big, big challenges that lie ahead. If the first two and a half years of law school, eight months of running, and year of wedding planning is any indication, I promise it will be a wild ride. It's not far to the bar, and I hope to see you at the finish line and at every step along the way.