a goal met

at christmas, i weighed myself and was quite shocked at the scale. assuming it was broken, i kept with the family tradition of eating and drinking over the break.

back at home, i checked again on my scale. eek... either it was broken, or all the beers and food and eating out since i moved to chicago had caught up with me.

i've never tried to lose weight before, but i realized i needed to before it got out of hand. i'm only 28; i can do this!

the only exercise i remotely liked was running, although i couldn't run but maybe 2 miles (i laugh now at how i thought that was a "long" run). my friend in nashville kept inviting me to run the country music half marathon with her, but 13 miles seem soooo long and frankly impossible. but i thought i could sign up, pay, train, and if i still couldn't do it i didn't have to.

so january 2009, i sign up and pay $100. i find a training schedule online and tape it to my fridge. i start weighing myself every day or so and writing down how many miles i did, adding them up at the end of the week. i figured if i was going to do this right, i should change my diet. yes, i gave up beer until the half. and most breads, and pizza, and pretty much all sugar. but slowly.

training started as 2-3-2 during the week and 4 mile long run on the weekend. then it bumped up to 3-4-3 and 5 on the weekend and so on. because this is chicago and january, i had to run on a treadmill. oh those days were long and boring. and i would get so tired i kept telling myself 'you're never going to make it to mile 13' (which coincendentally is not a suggested training method). the first time i went for 7 miles on a saturday, i had to lay on the floor and stretch for a good hour and a half after. what did i get myself into?

but the weight started coming off, and i wasn't missing beer, and my clothes fit better. and other people noticed and paid complements. by the week before the half, i was doing 5-6-5 and 10 on the weekend. and i liked it. i enjoyed my saturdays: they were all to myself, i would run for 2 hours (2!), and just think. i wouldn't be that tired either; i would stretch, eat, shower and be ready to go. i even went dancing one saturday night after a 10 mile run (although, i'm not sure my feet were happy with me on sunday).

so it all came down to april 25th. that thursday before, i flew to nashville to stay with my friend, j. friday we went to the expo, bought matching running shirts, stocked up on some beer for the next day, and went to italian. saturday we woke up and j's boyfriend drove us downtown to the starting line near the tennesee titans stadium. the first corral started around 7:30am; we crossed the start line around 8am.

it is hot. it is hilly. it is humid. but the whole city lined the race route; people handed out orange slices and kids sprayed us with water from garden hoses and sprinklers. there were bands along the route playing upbeat songs and tens of thousands of runners all headed for the finish line.

i have a strategy: start at a slower-than-you-want-to pace for 2 miles, walk through the water station & stretch (~1 min), run to the next mile, walk 1 min, run to the next mile, walk 1 min, and so on until you are done. that lasted me til mile 11.5; it was uphill and i frankly had to walk more than a min. so i walk to mile 12 and pick it back up for the last 1.1 miles.

and i finish! i really finished! i never thought i would! i got done in 2:34:00. not bad for a first try. my friend comes in later and afterwards we go to five guys burgers and friends for the biggest juiciest burger. tasted like heaven. and when i get home, i have the first ice cold beer of 09. and it was gooood.

running items i could not do without:

• ipod,
• nike+ ipod attachment (thanks b-rad),
• training schedule that you can cross off,
• scale,
• calendar to write down miles & weight,
• good shoes (nikes),
• good socks,
• bandaids,
• an "it" song (at the moment, it's "just dance" by lady gaga)

stories along the way:

• my brother-in-law got me the nike+ ipod attachment for christmas to motivate me and my sisters. my cat stole the receiver that plugs into the ipod and hid it somewhere after i'd only had it for about a month. i tore up my house trying to find it to no avail. so i bought another one...
• i wore two random socks because i couldn't find any matching pairs. one sock had some kind of symbols stitched in the arch and it wore the biggest blister in my left foot (hence why bandaids became so important. and good socks.)
• the italian restaurant we went to the night before the race wasn't up on the latest local news and only staffed one server that night. the place was so busy that the poor 17 year old dude couldn't keep up and kept forgetting things. horrible service, but it wasn't his fault.
• i signed up for the soldier field 10 mile and the chicago 13.1 half marathon to keep up with the running!

update:
5/23/09 soldier field 10 mile finish time 1:44:26
6/07/09 chicago 13.1 finish time 2:17:16