Tales of a Slow Runner: The Starting Line

Now that the school year is winding down, I'm going to finally do something I've been meaning to since I started running in January. And in case it isn't obvious by now, I'm going to try to blog about my running and probably about my life too. I do things other than run, although, based on my most recent conversations with my friends, that would be difficult to prove.

I had a 4 mile run scheduled for yesterday (I am in the midst of 10K training for a July 4th race) but due to being unable to keep anything in my system for about 12 hours (seriously, I couldn't keep down Pepto Bismol!) I had to put that off. I had hoped to do some sort of running today, but since carrying the laundry up and down the stairs made me tired, I don't think that running today would be a good idea.

I have all sorts of chores to catch up on from yesterday (Saturday is typically my errands day for the week) but since I was down for the count I got nothing done. I know I could make the time to run, but I am not sure if my body could handle it. But as much as I know that running right now might not be good for me and would likely cause me to (1) regress in my getting better process, (2) be so sore that I regret running or (3) seriously injure myself and throw off all of my training and planning, still I kinda want to run. That is so weird to hear myself say. If six months (or more) ago, someone had told me that the words, "I kinda want to run." would ever come out of my mouth, I would have laughed, out loud...in their faces...for an uncomfortably long time.

If that line doesn't scream for some sort of intro, I don't know what does. Since it would take waaay to long to explain thoroughly, I'll leave that for some other post, some time, maybe, I will give a short summary.

Ever since I graduated from college in 2006, I have slowly gained weight. I would occasionally work out or diet some when I really didn't like the numbers on the scale, but for the most part, I just let the weight on gradually and so I didn't really notice it. For my husband's school, we moved from Texas to Ohio and I decided that I didn't want to be overweight anymore. I started counting calories and eating better and I have lost 32 pounds so far. As I lost more weight, the number of calories I was "allowed" continued to go down and it got to a point where I was more hungry than I was comfortable with. I then had two choices, either slow down my weight loss or add some exercise. I decided to add exercise and since I have some friends who run and who told fun stories about races, I decided to start running. So three times a week, right after work, I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill. I didn't exactly follow any program, I just ran/walked for a total of 30 minutes (not counting a warm up and cool down) and slowly upped the amount of time I ran compared to the amount of time I walked. I signed up for a 5K and after doing my first one, I was hooked. I used to say that I hated running, but I loved the races! The second part is still true, but I would be lying (most of the time) if I said I hated running. I have signed up for more and longer races which give me a goal and a reason to keep running (if I've already paid the money for a race, I am not going to let it go to waste!). Weight-wise I am not where I want to be yet, but I am at a place where I am comfortable to hang out a

Here are some then and now pics for you! (It's super hard for me to find older pictures of me where I am in the picture, both because I hated being in pictures because I couldn't ignore the weight and because I am usually the photographer for my family)