Me a jogger? NO!

A new trend seems to be happening. There are a lot of people training for long distance runs. My cousin, whom Im super proud of is training to run a marathon. Then a friend of ours ran a triathlon last summer. I also have several friends on FB who are running in upcoming races. I think thats really cool. Long distance running is something Ive never been able to do. I wish I could, Ive tried but I just have a VERY hard time doing it. In high school I played basketball, volleyball, and we happened to live in a very nice place close to the ocean where I could enjoy the waves, which requires paddling out to the surf and holding your breath. It could be pretty intense. I wasnt out of shape by any means but if I heard during P.E. that we were going to run the mile my heartbeat would pick up and my palms would get sweaty just knowing what was awaiting me. Gasping for breath, saliva craziness, being beat by my younger sister, plus most of the P.E. class, then cooling down afterwards and trying really hard not to throw up. My sister and a friend that lived with us would go jogging at home and I would try, oh would I ever try, to jog with them. Inevitably I would always get the excessive salivating and the urge to puke after only a quarter mile. Fast forward to college days, my friends and I would rollerblade ALL the time for hours. It was so much fun and I didnt have a hard time keeping up. My wonderful sister and some friends would go jogging and again I would try, but the same thing, salivating, hyper breathing and the urge to puke, then afterwards the "cooling down" and trying to catch my breath (after the whopping mile that we ran) and the frantic swallowing so that I could keep my supper down. When my husband and I got married we lived in a place that had awesome mountains to climb. We would hike, and when I say hike its not walking on a little trail, we would scale the face of the mountains, where if we happened to lose our footing or for some reason let go, we would plummet to our death. I could keep up with him and we absolutely LOVED it. We dont live there anymore but we do love biking and if we could we would still rollerblade, (its not very practical with three young kids). Anyway, we bike for miles and I enjoy it, I even have to have a toddler on the back of my bike. I dont get the frantic breathing or salivating EVER while biking. After Tiny was born I wanted to get some pregnancy weight off and my husband has always been a good runner so we decided to jog together. I thought maybe since we had to walk up three flights of stairs to our apartment, which I did several times a day while carrying a toddler and a baby, along with groceries, MAYBE I could jog a mile, maybe. So we tried. My husbands stride, him being tall, is way longer than mine. When he "jogs" I sprint. Since that didnt work we decided to do a quarter of a mile and take turns. We had the kids with us so our son rode his bike and the one of us not running would watch the girls. I ALWAYS got that breathing problem and the salivating, which turned to "oh no, Im going to have to toss my cookies". My husband tried to teach me the basics of jogging breathing but I couldnt master it. After about a month we stopped. Now I exercise with Jillian right after that I ride my elliptical for 20 minutes. Im sure though if someone asked me today to go "jogging" I wouldnt be able to do it... So all those of you out there that can run long distances, I envy you and also give you a big thumbs up. For me, outdoor activities YES! Long distance running, no!