United Way’s couch-to-5K group starts April 27

By Ashley Winch

Marshfield Area United Way Marketing & Campaign Coordinator

I have never (ever) considered myself a runner. In fact for the majority of my life, I flat-out hated even the thought of running anywhere. A few years ago I became what I would call an avid walker. When I started to become bored and impatient while walking, I thought maybe I should give this running thing a try.

I really had no idea where to start and thought I would make it maybe a block before I would give up and realize why I always disliked even the thought of running, and quite honestly, that’s probably what happened on my first attempt. This, however, would be one time in my life that my stubbornness has paid off.

I hopped online and did some research and found the couch-to-5K program. This was before there were fancy apps you can download to your phone that tell you when to walk and when to jog, so I bought myself a timer and began the program.

I will never forget the day it was time to run for 20 minutes without stopping. I did not think there was any way I could do it, but lo and behold, I did. That was a great sense of accomplishment. From barely being able to run a block to 20 minutes without stopping in just a few short weeks felt amazing. I finished the couch-to-5K program and eventually was running for 30 minutes at a time. To this day I still have quite the love-hate relationship with running, but overall it has been a great accomplishment I did not think would ever happen.

A couple of years ago we here at United Way started offering a training group that met once a week over the nine weeks of the couch-to-5K training, and we will be organizing a group again this year. Please, if running is something you ever even thought about trying, join this group. You will be surrounded by others who are in the same boat as you, and you will have an automatic group of supporters to help you along the way.

The organizational meeting for the group is Monday, April 27, 2015, at 5:30 p.m. in the back of the United Way office. At that meeting the group will decide when and where the group will meet going forward. Please contact United Way with any questions or to RSVP to the meeting. Either call the office at 715-384-9992 or send an email to unitedway@tznet.com. We hope to see you there.