Marathon Training Begins

Most of you know a little about my journey from morbid obesity to my current status as "overweight". According to the BMI charts I am still 11 pounds away from being a "normal" weight, but I could care less what the stupid chart says. I am NO LONGER fat! Thank goodness! It only took 17000$, a total lifestyle change, 12 wardrobe changes, and an unbelievable dedication to ME to get there. So as I approached my bandiversary (1 year anniversary of being banded) I wanted to do something special. There was a thread on the lap-band support group site that I post on that asked what people did to celebrate! Of course the one thing that always comes to people's mind when they think about celebrations is .... you got it...FOOD! Well that seemed a little counterproductive to me. So I thought "What could I do that could really show myself how far I have come and how proud of my progress I am!" Ahhh...yes I could run a half marathon. You ask why not a full marathon...You do know that is 26.2 miles right? Well I haven't been running for that long so I figured I would set a goal that would be attainable.

So let's see what I have done so far...
Ran my first 5K on a treadmill on April 16th
Ran my first 5K outside on April 21st!

What will I be doing?
Redmond 5K fun run Saturday, April 26
Eugene Marathon's 5K run Sunday May 4
Sunriver Half-Marathon Saturday, June 29

I officially started the training today and it was QUITE an adventure.
First it is tougher outside than it is on the treadmill. On the treadmill you have to make a concious effort to slow down the speed to a walk. Outside it is sheer will power. I read some place that a marathon is a test of the mind not the body. I AGREE!!!! I made it, and I didn't do too bad considering that I was in a panic on the entire second half of the run. I run what is called the Dry Canyon. It is 1.5 miles each strech and when I got to the turn around I went to check my stopwatch that was in my pocket to see my time. Well my car key was SUPPOSED to be attached to that watch and it wasn't! So I had to run back not knowing where I had dropped the key, whether my car would even be there when I got back, and freaking out how I was going to get in my house! I only live about a mile from the canyon, but I had locked the rest of my keys in the car and just took my car key with me! Then I remembered that there was this very polite elderly woman who told me to go ahead of her because she didn't want her to slow me down and so I had quickly shoved the stopwatch in my pocket. I figured that the key disattached at that point and that it was probably on the ground at the beginning of the trail...WHICH IS ON A VERY BUSY ROAD NEXT TO A SKATE PARK. I remembered this encounter about a quarter of the way back and I don't know whether to be relieved because I know where it most likely fell out of my pocket, or panicked because who knows who could have picked up the key and driven off with my wallet, car keys...and oh yeah MY CAR!Well panicking doesn't do much for the heart rate and breathing...both of which you are supposed to keep even. I was swearing, on the verge of tears and FRUSTRATED! But I made my 3 miles AND found my car key right where I figured it had to be. So now I have to figure out a different way to attach that dang key to the stop watch because I don't want to go through that again. I seriously ran 1.5 miles looking down at the ground for the key. Hunched over is not good for the breathing.So my first training day was certainly memorable. It can only get better from here! Well until the day that I have to force myself to run 12 miles on my own. The 13.1 miles on race day will be easier because you will have the adrenaline of the people cheering you on. But training...never fun.

So I am going to try and update this regularly. I invite you to read it, but I have to forewarn you that this will not all be roses! There will be days when I am not going to be postive! But please feel free to leave comments. I know I am not very good at responding to emails but, hopefully this will give you a glance at what life is like AFTER taking a LONG trip into morbid obesity and fighting my way back! Hopefully you will then understand where all of my attention has gone during the last 8 months!