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For my first challenge, I choose running! Dum, dum, DUUMMMM!!!! All my life I have never been good at running. When I was 15 years old I was selected to run in the Queen's Baton Relay in the lead up to the 2006 Commonwealth Games (CG equivalent of the Olympic Torch relay) and I nearly said no because I was so scared I would look like a fool running 500m. Thankfully I had mentors that reinforced to me that this was an opportunity not to be missed and I did do the run, but I was SUPER self conscious the whole time. Fast forward to 23 year old me who starts with Nerd Fitness two years ago and was completely relieved to find a system that told me I didn't have to do cardio to be fit! Winning! I dived right in to strength training, first with dumbbell work outs and now with a barbell. I recently came to a couple of key realisations that I needed to be training more broadly than just weights in the gym. 1. My endurance was not improving as much as I had hoped. 2. The body type I admired and wanted to have myself was one of a diverse athlete, not a strong man. In fact I particularly admired heptathletes that are my definition multi-skilled. (Prompted by the awesome NF article: https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-building-any-physique-or-skill-set/ When I started reading NF I loved the "Classes" idea, and identified immediately with the Ranger guild. I want to by like Orlando Bloom in Lord of the Rings - able to run for days, shift heavy stones, and kill all the uruk-hai (ok, maybe not that last one). My husband would describe it as being a Swiss-army knife, having the tools for every situation. And all of this leads me to: my first attempt to really learn to run. PLAN: Using the C25K App, run 3 times a week for 12 weeks (I know the program is only 8 weeks long but I think I need buffer time to repeat weeks when it gets hard). BOSS BATTLE: Run for the Kids, Sunday 9th April 2017. 4.8km run in Melbourne CBD. I have not registered yet, I am giving myself a week to try it and chicken out if I don't think April is reasonable. It will be my loot for staying on track in training. So, feeling excited, nervous, pumped, hopeful, a little doubtful, and ready to blow my nose at every PE teacher who told me I needed to get my fat butt running.