I was always athletic as a child, my whole family was. Growing up in Minnesota it was a requirement to play soccer. I hated it. I was always afraid of getting hit by the ball, I don't really know why. I also hated all the running. I was never a runner. I dreaded the mile run in middle school, I thought I was going to die. I eventually quit soccer and took up swimming, much more my style. I enjoyed it and was a pretty good backstroker. After HS I took up the very popular sport of bar hopping in college - I do believe I got a varsity letter in this sport. Post college I walked our dogs and that was about all the exercise I even thought about. It was during this time that I got pregnant with Sydney and traveled to Chicago to watch one of the single most influencing events of my life. My older sister ran the Chicago marathon, 26.2 miles! I was blown away! It was one of the funnest days of my life. My parents, little sister, sisters BF (now hubs), some of her friends and I traveled the city via El and foot to make it along the route to cheer for her. We even were captured cheering for her by a news crew and featured in their story of the race! We'd only see her run by for about a minute but she looked fantastic, happy, determined, so cool - I thought it was amazing. There were so many runners, so many people watching and cheering - that day ALWAYS stuck with me. She set a goal, and did it. Why can't I do that?
Life with kids is busy. Very busy. Especially after your first, you don't know if it's night or day, you don't really shower, you don't really eat, you just feed/change/cuddle the baby. After Sydney I didn't do anything for myself, this led to some unhappy days. She was my world and I didn't think about much else. Soon things got better, I started working full time and I often thought about that day with my sister in Chicago. I was jealous of her determination and goal. Also my 3 sisters are size 0/2, me = not so much - so I thought this would be a great way to lose some weight. I started off slow, I didn't really know what I was doing. I ran slow. Jogged if you will. But I started to do pretty good. I got through that I'm going to vomit stage. T and Sydney used to drive me through the neighborhood and drop me off 2 miles away, I'd run home. I think he secretly enjoyed driving his wife and dumping her off, "ha! run home!" (evil laugh as he speeds away) So that summer I ran every 3 days and really was enjoying it, could I really train for distance? Just when I got the wild hair to do it I got pregnant with Jackson. That pretty much stopped all training.
After Jack life was difficult. He was a sick baby, stress was high. I made the decision to keep him home with me while working instead of daycare during the first 6 months of life. Because of his sensitive condition we didn't really leave the house. So the only break I got was to run, 1 hour of me time. I would run out the stress, fear, anxiety - I would cry - I would laugh - I would make evil runners faces. Runners faces? Oh I guess mine are a combination of I'm going to die/I'm going to puke/don't talk to me. How do I know? Because when I run by people they glance at me and then they look back and stare. So I must be looking like a confused asthmatic looking for her inhaler. (no I don't actually have asthma) So I was running every couple of days but not with any purpose, mostly to get out the tension.
During this time my best friend started training too. We didn't know each other had been running. Both of us were beginners. We started training virtually with our ipod Nike+ syncing program - so cool. And then we often talked about training for a distance, a race, a goal. We looked into various races, we did a 5k. Went pretty good. After that we focused on a bigger goal. The Denver Half Marathon 13.1 miles. We trained all last summer virtually and did our long distances together. I talked with my sis about the miles, hopping up distances and pacing myself through the training. When I started running 5 miles as my new "normal" I felt a sense of accomplishment. Wow, I'm actually a runner. This is fantastic. I did it.
Race day was quickly approaching. Yeah I was running 15 - 18 miles a week but never all at once. Could I do it? I was getting really nervous. I remember driving to my parents house and thinking, um they only live 11 miles from us, I'd STILL BE RUNNING! AHHHHHH! Never a good idea to clock miles in your car it is a mind (insert word here). My BF and I got together on a Friday night in Fort Collins and ran 10 miles. The night was cool, the trail went through some wooded areas (I thought any second a scary man was going to kidnap us) but we did it. WE DID IT! That night was amazing. We both knew we were ready. And we were. Race day came and I was no longer nervous. I remember crossing the starting line and thinking, no matter what, no matter how much pain I feel DON'T WALK. Push. Push. Push.
I thought about so many things that day. My family cheered me on throughout the course. Is this how my sister felt that day? It's an amazing high.
You focus
you run
you feel pain
you push
you want to puke
you push
you just run.
The people along the route really give you strength, even if they don't know you they cheer for you. My BF and I must have looked like we were dying at mile 12 because this lady really called us out and cheered, cheered, cheered. We giggled and pushed. We saw the finish line. I almost started to cry. My family was right there, I heard my Mom scream my name. I couldn't believe it. I DID IT. Me! Girl who hated to run just ran 13.1 miles! Whoot Whoot! It was amazing.
This summer I've continued my training, not as intense, but I'm still running. BF and I just signed up for a pretty cool 10k. Hopefully next summer I can focus on a long race again. I'd love one day to actually run the Chicago Marathon just like my big sis did. She inspired me to do it and because of that day I am the person I am today.
A daughter.
A sister.
A wife.
A mom.
A runner.
Thanks for reading my really long post. Now if you could please VOTE for me, I'm really close to breaking the top 100 so keep clicking! And as always feel free to pass on my blog to anyone that might enjoying my stories.
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