What's your running success story?

Leigh_b

Up until August 2013 I had never run more than a minute in my life. I hated running. Why? Because it was hard, and I felt that I just didn't have the body to do it.

In May I finished recovering from having my last baby, and decided to get back into gear to being healthy. (Note: I've always been overweight/obese). I started with nutrition, trying to work out but finding it impossible with two small kids!

In August, I joined a gym with babysitting, and my fitness story began. I wanted to do a variety of things to keep me interested, so I decided somewhere that maybe I could try C25K again. I had tried it a couple of times in the past, but could never get past the second week. I always gave up. It was too hard.

With a gym, I had a treadmill, and forced myself to not touch the speed, no matter how much I felt like stopping. And I did it. I was slower than snot, but I was getting through the program. During week 3-ish, I had stuff come up, and went 1 too many days between running. I couldn't complete my run, so I had to repeat my workout. Again, I made a commitment there to not have to repeat workouts (at that time, I saw it as more work lol).

A week and a half ago, I came up to the last day of the program, but due to my snail-pace I hadn't gotten near a 5k. So I decided to see how far I could go regardless of time. I ended up running 5K in 41:30! Since then, I have run the full distance 2 more times, and my first 5K is this Saturday. I've also signed up for a 5K Turkey Trot, and another 5K in December.

I haven't decided yet if I like running, but I don't loathe it nearly as much as I used to. I'm now 27 lbs lighter, and in terrific shape (under my layers of fluff, of course!) I'm working out 5-6 days a week (3 of those days are running), and the workouts are a lot easier than they were a couple of months ago.

Just wait until you finish that first race... then you'll LOVE it!!

Congratulations! Well done