Since I started running, I’ve been overwhelmed with the number of people who have taken the time to offer support here, at Daily Mile or elsewhere. And despite the fact that I had to take nearly a week off because of the Mancold, it’s continued to pay dividends.

I have a couple C25K workouts under my belt since I returned, and I feel like I’m mostly recovered from the unplanned week off. And that’s good, because the first of my goals is coming up in about six weeks.

I promised you when I started that I’d pick a 5K and give it a shot.

Done. The chosen race is the Jingle Bell Run/Walk on the North Shore the morning of December 10; I picked that one because we live close, the course is dead flat and Allegheny General Hospital is just a few blocks away.

(I’m kidding about that last part. Mostly.)

That will be my first 5K as a runner. I’m excited. And terrified. And excited. And terrified.

And I hope you can join me.

I know that’s a ridiculously busy time of year and I understand if you can’t make it. But if you have time — and you want to — I’d love to see you there. You can run it if you want. You can run with me if you want — although I’m still pretty much unable to speak while running, so I’m not sure how entertaining that would be. And even if you only had time to stop by the finish and watch me struggle across, it would mean the world to me.

(Also, I’ll probably need a whole bunch of people to help carry me back to my car.)

Again, I understand if you can’t make it. No worries. If you can, though, I’d love you forever.

As I mentioned before that, I’ve been running.

What has happened in the interim is something kind of scary: I’m enjoying the running.

If you’re not familiar with any of the Couch to 5K apps, they work sort of like this: Each week you’re given a schedule with times to walk and times to run, bracketed by five-minute warm-up and cool-down walks. You do three each “week” — kind of an arbitrary term, since I’m doing these every other day — before stepping up to a little less walking and a little more running the next week.

What that’s meant for me is that the first run of each week is a tough one — and that’s expected.

But the third run of each week? I’ve been looking forward to them. They feel awesome.

I can track progress by ticking off each workout in the app. I can see that I’m going a little longer as I add more running time. But the best way for me to see myself getting better is knowing that a run that was tough just five days earlier was suddenly easy.

And that feels amazing.

I did the first run of Week Five on Saturday morning. It was, predictably, a rough one: A three-minute run, followed by 90 seconds of walking, followed by a two-and-a-half minute walk, followed by a five-minute run and then repeated. Ouch. I completed the whole thing, though, and was looking forward to Monday’s run as a way to mark the progress.

And then I started feeling like shit on Sunday night. My coaching staff said I’d be OK to run if the congestion was just in my head on Monday morning, but I felt so lousy when I woke up that I didn’t go. The gunk had moved to my chest on Tuesday, and my coaching staff said running with a chest cold is a no-no. And I didn’t go.

So now I’m two days off schedule, and I’m kind of freaking out about it. I understand that I’m not going to lose everything I’ve gained by missing two or three days before going again. But.

But. I miss it. This is an odd thing for me to say, but I do. I have goals for this stuff — the 5K which I’ll discuss shortly and next fall’s Great Race are the immediate ones — but while I hadn’t planned on stopping at those, I hadn’t really thought much past them. I’ve had friends warn me that I would get hooked, and I didn’t really believe them. Until now.

Unless something changes between now and then, I’m going tomorrow morning. Just don’t tell my coaching staff.

Things I’ve learned after a successful first week of Couch to 5K:

• My street only looks flat.
• The nice English lady who lives in the C25K app sounds awfully earnest when she tells me to run. I always feel like looking back over my shoulder to see if she’s noticed someone following me.
• Strangers really want to talk to me while I’m running.
• Or maybe they’re checking to see if I can still breathe.
• So far, I can.
• The crossing guards in my neighborhood are pretty cool. They cheer for me as I go by.
• The people in my neighborhood apparently lose sunglasses with alarming frequency.
• The little hooligans who watch deck hockey games in Marmaduke Park need to do a better job of keeping their balls to themselves.
• If I ever have to vomit in someone’s front yard, I’ve already picked out a couple where it probably won’t matter.
• I still love the iPod’s October Mix, but it’s not the best running music ever.
• The Ballgame Tailgate mix might be, though.
• When you announce you’re going to give something like this a try, you instantly get a ton of support from friends. If you have friends like mine, anyway.
• No matter how hard I try, I haven’t yet come up with a reason to stop.

It was still dark at 6:45 this morning. A little misty, a little cool.

And not once did I think about going back to bed.

No, I wandered around the neighborhood for about two miles. A little more walking than running. The running part felt pretty good, and when the nice British lady on Couch to 5K told me to go, I tried to avoid lapsing into a shuffle. It worked.

About 35 minutes later, I arrived back at our house. I didn’t throw up in anyone’s yard. I didn’t feel like collapsing in a heap on the floor when I went inside.

And I even thought I might do this again.

Something that helped: The reaction from a bunch of you to yesterday’s post and the links I posted elsewhere. And the reaction I got when I signed up for Daily Mile this morning. I am set up with a list of races that’ll come around at just about the time that I’m finishing C25K, and I already have a couple volunteers to run with me when I pick one. Very gratifying stuff, especially for someone who’s just starting.

And that’s the point of doing it this way. I’ve tried before, but I didn’t tell anyone what I was doing — and that made it way too easy to quit. I know I have a bunch of people watching — and supporting me — this time; and I know they’ll let me have it if I slack.

Again — no promises beyond the short-term stuff. But I feel pretty good about the start.

Have you stopped laughing yet? It’s OK — I haven’t either.

The unfunny part about that promise is how little I did to actually follow up on it. Yeah, I started Couch to 5K — uh, more than once — and there was that one time I made it three whole weeks into the program.

And then? Um. That winter was sort of cold and snowy. And while I was at one time young and in shape enough that I actually enjoyed running, that was a loooong time ago.

I would like to do that again.

I have no grand promises about marathons, other than I’d really like to sling water at Pittsburgh’s again next spring. The Great Race looks like fun, and with some cooperation from Ohio State’s football schedule, I’d like to try that next fall.

But no promises, except for this: I will be up a little early on Tuesday morning, and I will start C25K again. After that, we’ll see how it goes.

Here’s what’s going to be different this time. I’m asking you guys for help. I’m not going to turn this into an exercise blog — because, uh, you guys all know me, right? — but I will let you know once in a while how things are going. If you don’t get an update for a while, ask for one. I will be posting the C25K updates on Twitter. If you haven’t seen one for a few days, ask me why you haven’t. In either case, if you don’t get a satisfactory response, feel free to yell.

And if you feel like offering some encouragement when I complain about it — because I will — those comments will be most appreciated.

If you guys can make sure I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing — in other words, if I know you guys are watching — I will do this. It will work. And I might even get to the point where I enjoy running again.

And if anyone knows of any silly mid-winter 5Ks they’d recommend, please let me know. Especially if you plan on joining me.

The other thing:

Can we just stop the season now and have a Cleveland Indians-Pittsburgh Pirates World Series?

And that’s why my softball league is better than yours.

Thanks, Jeremy.

The Time: Expect to arrive around 8:45 a.m. and swim — if you’re swimming — around 9:30.

The Place: The Mon Wharf, otherwise known as the parking area underneath the Parkway East that floods anytime someone sneezes. The entrance — a ramp down to the lot — is at Wood Street and Fort Pitt Boulevard:

(Follow that yellow sign to the right, boys and girls…)

The specific place: The Crappy Entourage will try to arrive around 8:30. We’ll tweet our location as soon as we get set up, but I suspect we’ll be close to where we were a year ago (the side of the lot closer to the Point).

The event: As I said before, if you’re swimming, everyone starts jumping in around 9:30. If you’re a newbie, here’s what to expect: Cold. Really cold. Colder than anything you’ve ever experienced. But that lasts just a few minutes once you get out of the water and into warm towels, blankets and clothes. If you’re not swimming, be prepared to help people out of the water, take pictures or shoot video and and yell for the nutjobs who are.

The after part: I am pleased to say that after the plunge, we’ll be returning to our original post-plunge celebration location: Ruggers Pub, on the South Side:

Our after party will be hosted by AAA, generally known here at Uncle Crappy as The World’s Greatest Bartender, and I’m told we’ll also have the kitchen fired up and ready for us by 10 a.m. After we eat and drink, I imagine no one would mind if you stay at Ruggers for the Winter Classic — if they get the game in — or for all 83 bowl games televised on New Year’s Day.

I can’t think of a better way to start 2011 that a dip in 40-degree water, followed by beer and cheeseburgers with some of my best friends anywhere. I hope to see you there.

He struck out 15 in his first start. He was 17 years old.

He willingly enlisted in the Navy at the start of World War II. He was the first Major Leaguer to do so, and he gave up four years of his prime to do it.

In the off seasons, he led baseball barnstorming tours, often including players from the Negro Leagues.

He continued going to Indians games — and live in Cleveland — after his retirement. He signed anything and everything fans asked him to.

He won 266 games. His career ERA was 3.25. He threw three no-hitters — including the only one ever thrown on an opening day — 12 one-hitters and was selected to the All-Star Game eight times.

Without question, Bob Feller was the greatest player to wear the Cleveland Indians uniform. He died last night.

Wanna go? I’ve got a pair of tickets for you.

Unsure? Listen — the list of breweries and beers is staggering. It’s three hours of the most fun you’re going to have all year. It’s at Station Square — easy to get to from anywhere, and no parking hassles. And if you run with our crowd, chances are excellent you know at least a couple ruggers; this is their biggest fundraiser of the year, and it keeps that excellent program in a position to continue with the regional and national playoff berths that have become the norm.

In short, it’s totally worth the $60 you’d spend for a pair of tickets.

But you might not have to do that. Here’s what you do instead:

• Click on the link (above) to the beers that will be featured on Sunday.
• Leave a comment here, telling me which one you’re looking forward to drinking the most, and why. (If you’re a first-time commenter here, don’t worry — those go to a queue for my approval, and I won’t miss it.)
• Get your comment in by noon on Wednesday; that’s when I’ll hit up random.org, which will pick the winning comment for me. I’ll contact the winner via email; if I don’t hear back by noon on Thursday, I’ll pick another number. Once we have a winner, I’ll arrange for AAA, better known as Queen of Brewfest, to have your tickets waiting for you at Will Call.

Simple. Free beer festival. Hang out the Crappys and other Yinz Teamers. Do it.