How I Became A Runner

I have been running for almost two years now. With in that time I have gone through three pairs of running shoes, ran four races (two of those being marathons), and spent countless hours training and running for just pure fun. If you were to tell me a little more than two years ago that I would be a distance runner, I would have laughed at you. (most definitely) At that time, I though running was the lamest excuse for exercise. I was, and still am, a believer in my at home workout programs, but at that time I relied on them solely for my fitness journey and I couldn't imagine anything else.

To best understand how I got to where I am now, let me start at the beginning. After I gave birth to my son in the summer of 2008, I realized I gained baby weight...a lot of baby weight, 100 pounds to be exact.  I used the typical I'm pregnant so I can eat what I want excuse, and as you can tell it didn't do me any good. It wasn't until I started to loose the "baby weight" that I realized it is hard to loose. In fact it took me almost four years to do so.

This picture was taken about a month after my son was born. I weighed 280 pounds.

By the spring of 2009, I was down to 245 pounds when I started a program called P90X, which is a great program by the way. I thought I had it down, but little did I know I needed to eat right too. I'm not kidding. If you gave me an hour, a pack of Oreo's and milk or a large Pizza Hut pizza (yes the whole pizza) with a two letter of diet cola (I had to save calories somewhere) it would be gone. But it was ok, I was lifting weights with Tony Horton on a daily basis.

By the summer of 2010, I was 220 pounds. I was frustrated with my weight and for the life of me could not figure out why. At this point I realized that something needed to change, and that change was my diet. This meant falling for the 'It's healthy because the box says so' gimmick. If it was labeled as a healthy food I bought it. Bad mistake! Needless to say I didn't loose much weight between the summer of 2010 and summer of 2011.

This was taken the early spring of 2010 for day one of my very first round of Insanity. I weighed 213 pounds. 

In the summer of 2011 I started to figure the whole healthy diet and exercise out. (I hadn't became a runner yet) I was down to 180 pounds and I felt like I conquered the world, or at least the scale. I also started eating a plant based diet which spawned from a juicing diet I was doing. (If you like drinking juiced kale and beats for all your meals of the day I'll send you the recipes.) For the first time in a long time I felt good about my self, so good that I made my husband take me to the Air Force Ball.

2011 Air Force Ball. I weighed 180 pounds. 

Now I bet you are wondering when I'm going to get to the part about me becoming a runner. Ok, ok, I'm getting to it. Have you ever just felt like doing something out of the blue? That is what happened to me one night in October of 2011. I decided to go to the gym and run. Before I new it, I was going every night. Then I started to plan my schedule around the gym's busy times so I was guarantied a half empty gym and a treadmill. (There is nothing yuckier than fresh sweat on gym equipment, but seeing who put it there is worse.) Then I started to record my runs. That is how competitive I am with myself. I will record my just for fun runs so I can keep track and see if I beat my time on my last just for fun run. Before I knew what what was happening, I started to like running. I know, your probably trying to figure out how someone so pessimistic about running could become such a fan. Trust me, I'm still trying to figure it out myself. Then one day in November I was reading an article from a local news station about a marathon race in Seattle. My curiosity was sparked instantly. What was this marathon thing they were taking about and why wasn't I doing it? At this point the farthest I had ever ran was three miles, so attempting to run 26.2 was not going to be easy. I made a promise to my self at that moment. I was going to run the 2012 Seattle Marathon. This seemed like an awesome idea, until I realized I had absolutely no idea how to train for such a task. I started to read magazine articles and websites to gain as much information as possible. I even bought my very own treadmill so I wouldn't have excuses for not making it to the gym or not being able to run in the cold rainy winter weather. During this time I also decided I wanted to go forward with my personal training certification. This helped me understand the training process even more. Then one day in January of 2012 an idea hit me. I couldn't make a marathon my very first race. I wouldn't know what to do. Who decides to run a marathon without running previous races? (Two words, crazy people.) So, to gain the experience of running a race I signed up for my very first race, a 12k. Oh and did I mention, running is really great for weight loss too.

This was at the 2012 Sound to Narrows race. I weighed 165 pounds.

Before I knew it, August had come and it was time for me to start my official training for the big race. I remember my first long distance run like it was yesterday. The whole nine miles. I had to soak my legs in Epsom salt afterwards, but I loved it and I was back running the next week. 

November 25, 2012 (race day!) had arrived. I was so excited that I got to the start area early, so early it was still dark. 

This was me two hours before the race.

The start line

Crossing the finish line five hours and fifty-three minutes later.

One half of my fan club. The other half had to take this picture.

Let let me tell you, marathon running is not easy, even if you trained for it. I finished my race an hour after my goal time and I could barely walk to the car, let alone the next five days. Clearly I had to work on some stuff, so sign up for the Wenathcee Marathon. (I think I was still on my runners high) And not only did I sign my self up to run, I signed up my wonderful husband to run the half marathon. (His first race. He's only semi crazy) 

This next marathon was in April of 2013, so this gave me a little over four months to train. I went over my mistakes from race and worked on improving on them. I though I had it in the bag. There was no reason why I couldn't make it to the finish line in less than five hours. But I let the fact that I new the course go to my head and I became laxed with my long distance runs. 

My husband and I waiting to start the Wenatchee race.

Me crossing the finish line with the time of 5:51:23. 

I finished this race two minutes faster than my last race, but still fifty one minutes short of my goal time. I still had fun even though I lost two toe nails. I am now looking towards my next race.  The 2013 Seattle Marathon on December 1st. I am going at it with a five hour goal time and I am determined to make it.