This, in a nutshell, is the recent story of my life: I came, I saw, I ran. For those who like a little more detail, let me elaborate...
I came to the realization that I was not living the best life that I could in early 2012. While I knew in the back of my mind that I could be eating better food and being more active, I was a slave to my life's schedule: two small kids, a husband that I'd like a little time with, a full time job, part-time college courses. In my infrequent down time, nothing sounded more appealing than snuggling up on the couch with a book or a TV show. Sound familiar?
I probably could have coasted on in that mindset for quite a while, but in early 2012, my 38 year old cousin lost his battle with a very aggressive form of cancer, leaving behind his wife and three small children. His passing rocked me, not only with grief and sadness for the wife, children, parents and siblings trying to cope with their devastating loss, but with complete and utter terror. My cousin was only a year older than my husband and me, his youngest child the same age as my oldest. It could have so easily been one of us. I've never before felt my own mortality quite as keenly.
From that minute on, I saw my life from another perspective. I have been blessed in my life, and rather than appreciating the people around me, and celebrating the fact that I continue to wake up and draw breath each morning, I was squandering some of the things I was lucky enough to have. I thought about how hard my cousin fought for each additional minute of his life, and I took a good hard look at the way I was living my own.
I also took a good, long look in the mirror, and climbed on the scale for a personal come-to-Jesus. I've never been a tiny person, though I'm short, but I'm still carrying around my baby weight, even though the first baby is heading into 2nd grade, and the second is almost four. Yes, it was clearly time for a change, but knowing a change is needed, and knowing how to make it happen are two different things.
I had recently read a book called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, which helped me formulate a plan. Duhigg explained that in order to effectively change a habit, a person needs to crave the rewards of the change more than they crave an old behavior. There is one reward that always motivates me, and that's a trip to Walt Disney World! Obligingly, WDW has a program called runDisney, which sponsors all kinds of races, including the Disney Princess Half-Marathon! I knew when I found it that I had the perfect reward to motivate a change in my habits.
That night, I sat my husband down and told him I wanted to start running, sure he was going to burst into laughter (secretly hoping he wouldn't, even though my mind was made up!). Actually, I think he was more relieved that I wasn't trying to talk about having another baby, or redoing the upstairs bathroom. In any case, he not only supported my plan, but agreed to run my first 5k with me! And so...
I ran, starting in May with the Couch to 5k program. It was a great choice for me, allowing me to mix running and walking, building slowly to the ultimate goal of running for 30 minutes straight. On July 22, my amazing husband and adventurous sister-in-law joined me in running the Old Port Half-Marathon and 5k! It was an amazing, empowering experience, and I met my goal of finishing in under 40 minutes (yes, I'm slow!) with a 38:44 time. Because the race was sponsored by Shipyard, I also got a celebration beer! Woohoo!
Now it's almost September, and since I took my first cautious jog up my street, I have lost just about 25 pounds, cut my 5k time down to 33 minutes, and registered for the 2013 Princess half-Marathon! I am still a work in progress, but I am thrilled that I have come so far so fast. I decided to start this blog in order to "pay it forward", because in this process I've drawn so much help, advice and direction from random, anonymous internet people! If I can be a random, anonymous, and yet helpful internet person to someone else, I will consider myself lucky!
