The Reason Why

So, if you have been a reader of my blog in the past, you probably noticed a decrease in the frequency of my blog posts since March. I figured I would let you in on the reason why.

It's because I have been doing a lot of this...

....No, not looking like a pregnant squirrel. It was cold, so I had 2 shirts on. Plus, it was 7am, & I was still puffy. At least that's my excuse. I've been RUNNING!!! YES, FOR FUN!!! WHY you say??? Let me explain.

After the holidays, I was the heaviest I have ever been. My "muffin top" was not appetizing or attractive. I was very down about myself and my appearance and decided I needed to take control and do something. Our ward has an annual 5K every year in September, that I have never participated in. I decided to change that this year. I decided I was gonna run that 3.1 miles if it killed me! So I had my goal & something to work towards.

But where to start. I couldn't run to save my life! I hated to run in high school. Honestly, I think it took me 16 minutes to do a mile in gym class and I haven't attempted to run since then. But in my neighborhood I am surrounded by runners and 2 of my sister-in-laws run, so I figured if they can do it, so can I.

Luckily, I ran across a schedule in my Family Circle magazine that was tailored to someone just starting by alternating walking and running. It worked well. I wasn't overwhelmed, and little by little, built up my minutes and miles, until I could run without having to walk.

My great neighbor and friend, Carrilyne, in all her wisdom, suggested that maybe I should run a race before September. I'm sure she knew I would need motivation to keep going and September was still a long ways away. She told me about the Utah Valley 5K and since it goes right past our neighborhood and it wasn't until June, so I still had plenty of time to get ready, I thought that maybe I could do it. I checked it out, talked to Richard, and my sister in-law Shaleece said she would come from Pocatello to run it with me.

I signed up. I was committed.

My sis-in-law,Shaleece, my heroine, stretching.

So I ran. On the treadmill when the weather was bad, which it was a lot of the time. Then finally outside on real pavement. Then the call came. Shaleece was going to run the Ogden 5K on May 16th and wondered if I wanted to give it a try. I still had not ran the whole 3.1 miles and the Ogden race was only 2 weeks away, but I figured what the heck and did it anyway!

I loved it! It was a great feeling! It was a wonderful running day!

We figured that if we could do it within 31-32 minutes that would be good. We did it in 30:21! And if we hadn't been stuck in the middle of the pack, I'm sure we would've shaved of those 21 seconds and then some.


Yeah! We did it!

I didn't think I really liked running until I ran that race. It was just something I endured to reach a goal. But that adrenaline rush of beating a time and running it the whole way, just spurred this little competitive part of me. Now I looked forward to getting the kids to school so I could go run. And I'm sure Ben's pre-school teacher got tired of seeing, & probably smelling, me in my running clothes, but I didn't care. I had a mission, and that mission was to run.


Now, I wish I could report a ton of weight loss, but I can't. I've only lost about 7-8 lbs since Christmas. But I can tell the difference in how things fit and how I feel. I can also run 4 miles (if I push it), where in the beginning I had trouble running for 1 minute. Plus, and maybe this is the best part, my "muffin top" has gone from "jumbo size" to just "regular" and that is good enough for me!