What?! Running?

All my life, I've never really had a hobby or was ever really involved in a sport that I was really into.  Growing up in McCamey there wasn't a lot to choose from.  I remember t-ball but there was  a huge gap between that and the next team sport that I was enlisted in which was 7th grade basketball and volleyball (was in Rockwall for that year).  I believe I stuck it out and played basketball for 8th grade and spent a lot of time on the injured list (super clumsy).  After realizing that I had spent most of my 8th grade year on crutches, I really just had no desire to play another sport.  I did take up tennis my junior year, but only because I was going to play doubles with my bff at the time and we really didn't take it too seriously.  PLUS I had a serious crush on one of the senior boys playing, so it wasn't like pulling teeth to get me to practice.

After high school was over I became REALLY out of shape.  Once Brad proposed and the wedding countdown began, I got into the gym thing and just LOVED it!  However, shortly after we were married (5 months) we found out that I was pregnant and I just could not force myself to go to the gym.  My weight gain was evident of that.

Anyway, 4 years later I decided to start going to a personal trainer to help with all the baby weight that was making itself at home on my body.  She decided that it would be a fun idea to sign some of her clients up to run at the Susan G. Komen 5k run in Austin!  And I said uhh, really?  This was such an amazing event that once you are surrounded by all of these people who are soo enthusiastic about finding a cure, it's just breathtaking to be a part of it.  There were many times I and a few of our team members were found tearing up.  We returned home and then the holidays hit up and running/training became a distant thought in my brain.  April came around and the Midland Police Department was hosting the first Run From The Cops 5k.  You know when you take off from working out and at that point you are able to do 100+ crunches and you stop for a couple of months, but once you start back up you FEEL like you should be able to start back up where you left off??  That's how I felt about running.  I about died and cried at the end when the lady who was like 90 years old beat me to the finish line!  I thought I was going to need an oxygen mask and Brad was on the verge of calling an ambulance!  After deciding that this is something I was not going to let go of, I started talking about it with a couple of my friends and how I really wanted to start getting back into running.  Mallory and I decided we would start training for a couple of 5k's in Midland and eventually we would get to Warrior Dash in Austin!  We started with the Couch-To-5K  plan.         

Run For Rackow-2010

Warrior Dash 2010 - Austin

(Before)

 (After)

Cold weather came and our training started slipping.  It was getting too cold to run in the mornings before work.  Mallory started getting sick and my grandad passed away in November.   It was becoming difficult to stay on top of. 

Right after Christmas I decided my goal for the new year would be to run a marathon in November.  My first step would be to run a 5k January 1st.  I needed to do this because I decided to switch from Couch-to-5k and go with the Runner's World Smartcoach App to help me train for my new goal.  It asks for your most current finished race time and since it had been a couple of months since I had last raced, I knew I'd need to complete this 5k to get the most accurate time.  So it was like 35 degrees outside and as my husband bowed out of racing that day, I laced up my tennis shoes and headed out the door.  It was miserable but I got my time.  I quickly entered my finish time and got our running plan.  We were off to a good start on training and making sure to get our runs in for the week.  However, the semester started at MC and we started finding it difficult to find a schedule that worked for us.  With Brad working at night and my classes at night and with making sure Braeden had someone watching him, it became too stressful to even think about running.  But I missed it desperately.  Something had to give.  So I dropped this semester.  I hated the way the teacher taught and the highest avg grades were between 75-80 after every test.  I decided that this goal of mine was too important for me to let go of for a C possibly pushing B grade.  Ultimately I decided I needed to focus more on my personal fitness goals and achieve better self confidence in myself before focusing on school.  Do I regret the decision?  No.  

By the time March came, we just weren't as prepared as we would have liked to have been for the 1/2 marathon.  However, we did bump our race mileage up to a 10k!  We were very proud of ourselves!   

   Bloodgusher-2011

Even though we didn't make it for the 1/2 on this race, our eye is still on the finish line of finishing marathon in November.  We'll probably run a couple more 10k's before moving up to a 1/2 though.  More of a mental thing.  I will be giving updates on our races and training.  This is a very exciting goal for me.  Hopefully I can just stay off the crutches!