1 Year and 70 Pounds Later

     Sooo…..I have a story.  It’s not finished yet, but….consider this a movie trailer of sorts-minus the movie, the paycheck, and the hot male actor playing lead along side me.  Not yet to the male lead, but it's still early in this movie.  
      A year ago I took up running.  Before that point, running was something other people did that sometimes interfered with city traffic on weekends.  It would have been on my 'never' list if I knew I needed to make that list.   It wasn’t a part of my vocabulary, except perhaps when one needs an antonym to describe one’s life. 
   So, not knowing I needed to be more deligent about guarding my 'never list,' as I was pondering my next exercise 'plan' to help lose some weight,  I heard about the Couch to 5K challenge App.  Hey, I've 'never' tried running, why not?  I decided to give it a go.  I started.  Three weeks later,  it snowed.  7 months passed.  I gained 30 pounds.   I turned 32.   I decided it was time to lose the weight.  But I like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and Cheetoes, and :put the name of any carb here:.

     Here’s my thinking.  You have to find something you hate more than you love food.  Ta Da!!!!  I’m a runner! 
     True story.
     Assuming you will allow me to call it 'running' b/c the shoes and socks are found in the running section.  I’m a runner.  In reality, I got passed by speed walkers at my first half marathon last March.  Like, all of them.  The only people still on the course with me at the end of the race were those who were obviously experiencing physical problems, as in,  they pulled a muscle and they limped across the finish line with me.  But I finished, and I ‘ran’ :heavy air quotes: the whole thing.  Subtract the officer about mile 10 that was standing by the barricade who asked me if I was OK, and I’ll call it a success.   I realized-I don’t run for the cheers.  I, certainly, don’t run for speed.  I run because I’m 70 pounds lighter BECAUSE I ran. 
     I started out  thinking small, 30 seconds at time.  It was hard.   I usually run at this park (pictured above) that is .70 miles around a little pond.  I remember thinking my first goal was to run around one time.  I’d run from one lamppost to the next (less than 100 steps) and think-someday, I’m going to run past every lamp post without stopping.  And then, someday came.  I passed all those post one time, and then I worked on a mile.  I remember how hard that mile was to complete.  I couldn’t imagine three miles (goal #3).    But then I made it three.  And now 3 miles, 3 miles is my ‘easy.’  I think-oh, thank goodness, it’s only three.  Don’t get me wrong….three isn’t a walk in the park (ha ha ha ha ha….I amuse me), but it’s not 8, and it’s certainly not 13.1. 
     My first (and only) half in March, despite the training,  I remember seeing the three mile mark and I thought-you have GOT to be kidding me, I’m only at three?!?!?  The whole time I ran that race I told myself this was it, this was the only time I was doing it.  It was too hard.  And then those stupid endorphins stepped in at the end of the race.  They hand you energy juice, and chocolate milk, and bagels and all the sudden you feel OK again and you are telling people, as you limp to the car,  you are going to run a marathon someday. 
     This is where the prior part of my story meets the present, and then the future hope.
     So, I decided I would run another one (stupid endorphins).  I’d run one more half (As this post-Sunday the 23rd...7:30 am, I’m ‘running’ that half….air quotes still necessary around running), and then my plan is to attempt ‘the marathon.’  Just one attempt at a marathon December 9^th.  
      To be totally honest-running has taken over my life.  I’m doing a relatively light schedule to train because my goal is to just finish, and like, have a heart beat, at the end of the race, but it takes so much time, and I’m still just at the first 1/3 of the schedule.  October and November I’ll just be a distant memory to those that used to be part of my social life.  BUT, I knew losing this weight would be a full time job.  I’m not there yet.  I have more weight I want to lose….just a little more, but it will take me as long as that first huge hurdle took.  I know the running is the only thing that has kept me focused.  I’ve run through excuses, vacations, cake, cookies, issues inside and outside this body of mine, relationships, work, heart ache, bloody socks, and happy times.  I was inspired from great friends who ran first.  I’m so excited (and encouraged) by those that have joined me.  
      So here’s the bottom line.  I don’t know if I’ll finish that marathon…I don’t know if I’ll find my way home from today’s half.  I can’t imagine I won’t accomplish both, but….it truly is all up to God.  I never thought I’d run a mile.  I certainly didn’t think 13.1 was a possibility.  26.2 was the most ridiculous challenge of all, but I can do all things through Christ (Phil 4:13).  If He wills it, I'm training for that finish line.  The whole point was to make getting healthy a priority, and I’ve accomplished (or, rather AM accomplishing)  that focus and have changed the way I view life.  Minus a few miles at the end of each run, my life is better for this challenge. 
     I don’t think I’ll always be a runner. The whole idea is just there are so many things in life I put “I never…” in front of, and then I find myself in the middle of them, and it’s an incredible story.   I don’t know that I’ll ever attempt another marathon.  I’m not planning on it-I think I’ll find a new challenge, so don’t hold me accountable for anything I say December 9^th, but what a fun year of first.   Then again, I may be on my 4th marathon a year from now, who knows.   I have more to write, but….I had to put this first half of my story in writing to A)  Keep focused on my goal and B)  Hopefully someone else who is in that boat looking at the next lamp post will realize you are capable of that….and so much more.  Here's hoping it's not toooo long before I get to finish this portion of my story.   And if my fingers work.....I'll report back soon because somebody has to keep me accountable...and send me Reeses.