My cousin Maggie emailed me the other day asking for suggestions for beginning runners. She had read my story and knew that the whole running thing didn’t exactly come easy to me … but once I knew I could do it, I quickly became addicted to that runner’s high!

The fact is, there are two mistakes many people make when they first start running (and they are easily corrected!): expecting it to be easy from day one, and doing more than your body is ready for. I’ll admit it: I’m not the most patient person when it comes to getting the hang of something (if you’d ask my former trainers how I would react to something I couldn’t get right away, they’d probably just laugh … because I would actually get angry at myself if I didn’t pick it up the first try. For the record, by the third try…