Jan 24, 2014

My Journey: 0 to 13.1

A journey
It's crazy to look back at how far l've come. Since starting this blog to help track getting healthy, to deciding to train for a half marathon, it has been quite a journey. It has of course had it's highs and lows. While I haven't accomplished all that I set out to, l think the highs have greatly outnumbered the lows. And frankly, it just means I have room and directions to grow. Believe me, I have no intentions of stopping.

It is funny to look back and see in March I wrote about having a "long term" goal to run a Disney Half marathon only to sign up the next month and finish my first 13.1 miles just 9 months after that. It's amazing how quickly that time has gone.

The Jeff Galloway Run-Walk-Run plan was amazing. It was really the key to my success. It helped me get through my half, even when I was not up on my training, but even more than that, it really helped me build my confidence early that I would be able to do this. I can never thank Jeff enough for that. I hope someday I get to meet him though and get to try. Until then, Jeff, thank you. Thank you for giving me confidence, experience, health and accomplishment. Thank you for helping me give that all to myself.

Past Year-ish

Let's take a look at what I have done getting here, in a little under a year.

What's next?

I've come a long way, but I'm far from done. I'm going to keep running. And first things first, I'm going to work on my weight loss. I haven't made progress in this area. I dropped some and put it back on while being inactive. I'm going to take a step back more towards what I did before my wedding and do more elliptical running than road running. This will help two-fold. First, I can run faster for longer to help rebuild my cardio. Second, I can do this at the gym at work, which avoids the cold weather. After Florida, I'd really prefer living in 70 degree sunny Florida than 10 degree snowy Virginia. (And before you say it, yes I know it gets hot and humid over the summer. I've been there, and I can handle that.) My hope is this will help me to drop some weight and then keep it off while running some races.

I've started to line up some races for this spring and summer. I haven't fully laid out my goal yet for a yearly total. As of now, counting the 2 I already completed, I'm already looking at around 7 this year. We'll see if that number grows. I want to use the races to help keep me in check. Of course, those checks come at a monetary price, so I need to keep the budget in check as well.

Will I run more half marathons? Absolutely. Will I run a marathon? Yes. Not saying this year, but that goal is now out there. I just need to get myself the mental confidence there. Will I run Disney again? Without a doubt.

Am I done my journey?

Not even close.

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