You want me to do what?

Last week I met the new running coach who works at our gym. He and I sat down and talked about my plan and my goals. We went over the week ahead. He gave me some pointers and some goals for the week's runs and workout days. All that has been on my mind since then is "how in the world am I going to run a full mile on Monday?" Now, putting it into perspective, the actual goal was to take my mile walk and add some faster running intervals into it. My mind, however, turns that into, "how fast can I run a mile right now?" Regardless, the "you want me to do what?" kept me preoccupied most of the day. Then it was time to run. I decided to walk a half a mile to a flatter area so at least my first real running mile back would be flat or downhill to help me out a bit. Call it cheating if you want - but I called it smart survival skills. So I get to the point where I'm supposed to run and I begin. 5 1/2 minutes later I decided to walk. Then I began wondering when I was ever able to run 5 1/2 minutes straight before. I know way back when I first started running, before I got sick, I had consistently been able to run a mile without a walk break. But, for as long as I could remember since dealing with the med issues, I had never run that far without a break. Maybe I was better. So after a mere 40 seconds of walking, I was ready to run again. I only made it about 2 1/2 minutes this time - but it was still better than I expected. I walked another 30 seconds and finished the mile running. My finish time was 10:57 for the mile. OK. That's great for me. I walked the half mile back home and for the first time truly believed maybe this return to running really was possible. Bring on the next mile, coach! I'm ready.