On the topic of apps... I knew that if I was going to start running that I'd need some help getting started. I "invested" $2.99 in an app to do just that - "Get running".
The app has a voice prompt which takes you from couch to 5k in 9 weeks. It starts out slow, run 1 minute/walk 1 minute and builds weekly until you are running for 30 minutes. My 5 yr. old named my voice prompt "Holly". Over the next several weeks I came to love (and sometimes hate) Holly as she pushed me closer to the 5k mark. Holly was never critical and always encouraging. She always told us (I of course talked my cousin into taking this journey with me) when we had completed half of our run, and when runs became longer she gave us 5 minute prompts. These "time markers" we're helpful as we moved forward. Sometimes I felt like "wow that was 5 minutes" and sometimes I felt like "really, only 5 minutes, aargh!"
Making the giant leap to 5 minutes straight of running seemed like it was going to be impossible but really it was much easier to keep running to 5 than it was to repeatedly stop and start. Once we crossed that 5 minute mark I knew we could do it. So I made a decision, if I could run 30 minutes by January 1st I'd sign up for the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati. So for the month of December my cousin and I met three times a week until at the beginning of January we were within reach of the 30 minute goal.
At this point I discovered that a college roommate was running and challenged her to join us in the marathon. She, realistically, suggested running the half marathon instead. That made sense to me. So at 43, I started training for my first 1/2 marathon.
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