Running

I have started training for a half marathon that I am going to run in August. This is not something that comes naturally for me. When I was growing up, I never understood why people would just run for fun. I loved to play basketball so if you put a ball in my hand I would run up and down a court and not think twice about it. But run for fun? Why? You leave your house to run a big circle and end up right back where you started. Or, worse, you jump on a treadmill to run a belt and make absolutely no progress at all. Around and around, step after step, all in the same exact spot. What is the point? Oh right- being healthy, exercising, taking care of your body. I finally figured this out after many long hours of staring in the mirror and wondering why my strict regime of eating whatever crap I wanted and running after ice cream trucks was not working with my scale. Strange, I know, but no matter how many ice creams trucks I ran after or how far I had to run to catch them, my scale was only headed in one direction. And it was not down. So, point taken. Exercise it is. My sisters and I decided in January that we would go for a half marathon so I started training right away. Tread mill bought. Ipod prepared. Daring trip to purchase running shoes. Talk to all my friends that run. Attempt to become pro at something that has been total stupidity to me before now. I have wanted to write about all of this before now but I think I was too prideful. I was afraid of failing and then everyone in blogland would see me as weak and a quitter. But then it hit me, if I do fail, I am weak and a quitter. So here it is. I am running on a regular basis now and completed my first 5k today. My goal was to run the whole time and not throw up on the side of the road. Success! I ran the whole time, I didn't come in last, and I beat the time that I had expected for myself. I loved crossing the finish line and having my family there to support me. Thank you Brittney for running with me. I had a blast. There will be many more runs in the future. Many more finish lines to cross and many more goals to accomplish. I can't wait.