A few weeks ago I hit a big fat emotional wall due to the stress of everything that had been happening in a 3 month time span.  It was so intense that I had to do some serious soul searching and hit rock bottom there for a while.  I haven’t ever felt that emotionally drained and miserable in my life, completely unmotivated and honestly quite pathetic.  My husband was there for me and encouraging the entire time, but I just couldn’t pull myself out of it.  Finally something snapped and I took a long overdue run.  It had been over a month since my last attempt and I blew through 2 miles that day.  It was completely exhausting and exhillerating at the same time.  The next day I could barely walk, but the emotional change was so incredible.  I KNEW I had to keep running.

Fast forward to a couple of days after that and I ran again, though this time I only managed a mile.  It was sad and I was incredibly pissed off that I didn’t have it in me to do more.  However, running had worked its magic again and I was in a much happier mood.  During this time my awesome friend/coworker started up a running club at our office.  He has been one hell of a motivator to my running and the club is an amazing way to train.  Everyone encourages one another, no matter how fast or slow the pace, long or short the distance.

The first group run we had, I was the slow poke half a mile back from everyone.  I have had some problems coming to terms with how slow I run/jog.  It’s been a rough road even getting up to the 3 mile mark; I have been overweight and sedentary my entire life and never ran in high school or college.  It is a blessing I am able to do this much at all!  But when we were done with our run, I realized that this was how I was going to stay motivated.  The more we’ve run as a group since then, I am still at the end of the pack.  However, I have set goals to meet a certain distance no matter the pace, and I know that the more I run and the further I go, the better my speed will get.

Anyway, TLDR, I’ll be posting more updates soon.  Possibly some healthy recipes, who knows.

-A

One reason I’m tackling this half marathon and picking up running again is because I am still incredibly overweight.  When I first started running earlier this year, it was really slow going.  I was almost 230lbs and so out of shape all I did the first couple of weeks was walk.  Gradually I worked up to a half mile, then a mile, then more.  It is my personal belief that during this time I looked like the wheezing rhinoceros from the movie Jumanji (the one at the end of the herd).

Why yes, this guy

Anyway, before I took a running sabbatical, I had lost 50lbs and for once was very happy with myself.  I still am, but know I can be even better.  The second reason for doing the half marathon is to do something not everyone can say they have done, and to do it with my best friend.  Even though I’m sure we will be towards the end of the pack, I know it will be a blast.

More updates will follow in the weeks to come.  Since I’m still a beginner at this whole thing, it will be interesting to see where I am 3 months from now…

-A