Miles in
2013: 931.5
Days Until
Dopey: 58
Some people have called me running obsessed. They might be right. Then I wonder if I should be angry with these
people – I mean is it really such a bad thing?
3 years ago I was fat. There is
no sugar coating that statement. I woke
up one day, saw a photo of myself and thought “oh my God – when did I get fat?” So at the largest I’d ever been – 29 years
old, roughly 234 pounds, and a size 16W in the only real pants that fit me I decided
to get it in gear and try and lose weight once and for all. Over the previous 10 years I would get on a
fitness kick, lose weight and do well for a while only to slowly creep up and
be larger than I had been before. I don’t
know why this time I thought I was ready to make it be different but I was.
From the weekend I realized I was fat
I started by going to the gym and spending 30 minutes on the
elliptical. I had two knee surgeries in
high school when I was 16 and 17 and my orthopedic surgeon told me that I should
never run on anything besides an elliptical because the impact would be too
much. I worked in a little bit of weight
lifting and started keeping track of my calories. My dad had gone through a scare with diabetes
not long before and had taken a nutrition course through the local
hospital. What I took away from that was
basically take the number of pounds you wanted to be (150) and add a zero to
the end (1500) and that’s approximately how many calories you should eat a
day. I started there. For two months I did well with this plan and
lost a few pounds. Then I was fortunate
to have 2 things happen.
First, my friend Kelly from high school and her husband
Allan, were opening a gym (2 hours away!) and had a Thermometer Jeans
Challenge. Basically following their
plan I would more or less lose 2 pants sizes over 8 weeks. After some talk they decided to add in a
virtual option for those of us who didn’t live nearby. I talked to Jason about it, the virtual
option was $300! The thought of spending
that much money on myself had my stomach in knots. He encouraged me to do and said if I was
going to really commit to it that he would hand me the cash from his “fun money”
right then. I don’t know if I’ve ever
given him enough credit for believing in me.
I signed up. The day before that
8 week challenge I did the Warrior Dash 5k obstacle course. You can see why I needed to get myself
together.
Before the Warrior Dash
The jeans plan was pretty easy to follow. Kelly was working on becoming a nutritionist
and Allan was a trainer. Between the two
of them I had a work out plan and an eating plan. I won’t call it a diet because it really was
just an overhaul of what I should have been eating. One thing I liked about this was there weren’t
crazy supplements, shots, shakes, pills, etc. that so many weight loss programs
include. Just real whole foods and
sensible work out routines. Two days a
week I did a metabolic acceleration program and two days a week I did total
body strength training. At the end of
the 8 weeks – lo and behold those size 12 jeans I had mailed to Kelly fit. They weren’t fitting well enough to wear in
public, but they sure did button and zip without a whole lot of acrobatics to
get me in them. 8 weeks earlier I had 2
pairs of XL stretchy leggings and a pair of 16W jeans that fit me. Nothing else.
Now I could go shopping through my old clothes and find things that fit
again. I continued to stick with both
the eating plan and the workouts and continued to lose weight. I have told them many times just how thankful
I am to Allan and Kelly for coming into my life and giving me those tools at
just the right time.
With Allan and other Thermometer Jeans Participants at the end of the 8 week challenge
Around this time, my friend Sarah had suggested that we try
something new and fitness related each month.
Warrior Dash was our first, that was January. February and March were my jeans challenge. In April we ran our first 5k. I admittedly did not train for it like I should
have. If I look back at my Nike+ data
from then it’s no wonder that the Run For the Trees was so miserable. We did another 5k a few weeks later. Yup, just as miserable. My little brother ran that one too and waved
as we were a mile in and he was almost done.
Sarah and I had signed up for a local marathon training program that
started in June. I lied and said I could
run 4 miles at a 12 min mile pace. I
thought that was easy. Man, was I wrong.
I struggled for months when Marathonfest started. I was always in the back of the group. I couldn’t run the 3:1 intervals to save my
life. We developed a “run to” plan – “run
to that tree” or “run to the corner.” A
month in I sat down on the corner ¾ of a mile into a run and cried. I was a mess.
Running was not something that came easily to me. I know there were many times where people
looked at me waiting for me to give up.
Little did they know I’m cheap and had spent $150 bucks on this 7 month
program and I refused to let the money go to waste. I’d also signed up for the Daytona Beach Half
Marathon in October and wasn’t going to let that money go to waste. I also had gone to a real running store and
paid full price for real running shoes – so I had a lot invested in this
endeavor. I’ve always been stubborn
(just ask my parents) so those looks people gave just made me want to succeed
even more. My first half marathon was
less than stellar. I got super sick the
day before and had my fever break a few miles into the race. Halfway through the race it was all I could
do to do a “run to.” A man on crutches
beat me. My time of 3:18 was slower than
I had hoped for but it was over and I had done it.
Halfway through my first Half
I had signed up for my first marathon before I completed
that half. So I was stuck having to
train for it whether I was ready to be a marathoner or not! I realized that no one from our group was
training for a spring marathon – time to put my big girl pants on and be a
leader. I felt like I had a lot to
prove. The girl from the back was now a
leader, talk about pressure. Then one
day between seasons I met up with the group for a run and something had
changed. It was cold out. I could run, in fact I was up at the front of
the group for the whole time. That had
never happened before. I was finally hooked
now that I knew what a good run is supposed to feel like.
Over the course of the next two years I have run 16 more half
marathons and 4 marathons. I’ve taken
almost an hour off of my half time and over an hour off of my marathon
time. I’m signed up for 9 more halves
and another marathon. Needless to say I’m
hooked. I’ve lost 85 pounds and am now comfortably
in size 4 and 6 pants. This brings me
back to my original claim that people have called me obsessed. Yes, I run a lot. Yes, that means I don’t live the same
lifestyle that I did 3 years ago. Yes, I
dedicate a lot of time to running. Is
that so bad? My husband and I have
chosen not to have children. I have lots
of friends with young kids and that’s their priority. I don’t ever criticize them for making that
their priority. I don’t see some people
as much as I used to. I used to not have
any commitments and was able to drop everything and do things for everyone else
at any time. My friend Shannon put it
best when she told me “you are a giver, and all of the takers in your life don’t
know how to handle you not being available to them all of the time anymore.” Just because I’ve chosen to dedicate my time
to running and being healthy doesn’t make it a bad thing. I could be fat, tired, and lazy still.
After marathon #4 - NYC! From 6:43 to 5:29!
I’m fortunate to have a husband who supports me. I really don’t thank him enough. He doesn’t run and he doesn’t often go to the races, it’s not
his thing after all, it’s mine. He never
tells me not to go run a race, he follows the text alerts whenever I run a race
that has them, and he always
instinctively knows when I’m struggling in a marathon and sends texts messages
that push me to the finish. Yes, it
means I’m gone for parts of the weekend and sometimes its 10 weekends in a
row. I’m lucky that he sees how happy
this makes and continues to encourage me to keep running. I feel better knowing that the one person whose
opinion really matters to me is in my corner and so proud of me.
My man, I'm a very lucky girl
I’m not planning on stopping this crazy running routine
anytime soon and if that makes me obsessed I’m ok with it. If you’re a friend of mine who just doesn’t
get it, that’s ok too but keep your opinion of me to yourself! It's my thing and there are worse things I could be doing.
