Reed Dunn, Senior Recruitment Marketing Manager:

“I love running. I can’t imagine my life without it.”

Those words came right out of my mouth. And I meant it. That’s major progress for someone who not that long ago said things like, “I hate running” and “I’ll never do that, again.” Well, never say never.

This weekend marked my first official 10K run – the Dawg Dash through the University of Washington campus. While I’ve run longer distances on my own, the race was my first timed event at that distance. The course was not the best laid out for me, and it intertwined with the route for the 5K runners and walkers. Running strollers and dogs added to the frustration of the day. There also were issues with the exact distance – it was between a quarter and a half a mile short.

While I had a few complaints about the race, my officially adjusted time left me pacing just under eight-minute miles … only by one one-hundred of a second, but still below. The eight-minute mile was my pace for the last timed race I completed, a 5K.

I’ll admit, I’m pretty pleased with this progress. Every little bit counts as a mark down the days to the December 4 half marathon in Las Vegas.

With my 10K time recorded, I decided to turn to the internet to see what online running calculators would estimate my half marathon time to be now. I first looked at the finish time calculator on the Runner’s World website, which suggested I finish in just over an hour and 41 minutes. That, to me, is crazy talk.

A friend suggested I try a few others, including running coach Greg McMillan’s calculator. That also has me at less than the two hours I’m expecting it to take me to complete the half marathon. Other calculators show closer to an hour and 50 minutes, which I still think is pushing it. But, I am still five-plus weeks out.

My slight improvement comes on the heels of being forced to only have running days in my workout regimen for the last week, after a volleyball game last week left me with a severely jammed and/or possibly broken ring finger on my dominant left hand. That injury, while it doesn’t directly change my running schedule, has thrown off my weight lifting and yoga – something that has been instrumental in my run recovery throughout this training.

While I have a standard three or four running days built into my schedule, I’ve added some additional hill climb drills and work to those days. This week I increased to five days of running, with the added day being completely driven by form focus and mental preparedness. Nothing with speed is incorporated, and I don’t even time myself.

It’s impressive how much running is changing my other life behaviors for the better. I work with a team focused on healthy behavior change with a focus on quitting tobacco and weight loss every day, and I’m constantly seeing the connections you can make with other changes – including a fitness goal such as running a half marathon.

That’s the reason I now can say I love running. And mean it.

Reed Dunn is senior recruitment marketing manager at Alere Wellbeing. Follow his journey with regular updates on the Alere Wellbeing blog, as he prepares to run his first half marathon on December 4 in Las Vegas.