My Half Marathon.....To you MFP friends and the like

I am running a half marathon tomorrow! I just wanted to scream that somewhere and I felt that right here was as good of a place as any. I haven’t run an event in 2 years. Actually, It was the same event as the one I am running tomorrow so I guess it has been exactly 2 years. Barely a month after the last event I had a surgery that went ‘rather wrong’ as the surgeons put it. It went from a laparoscopic procedure to remove my gall bladder to an open procedure that kept in me in the hospital for a luxurious six-night, seven-day stay, complete with another procedure to place a stint in so I didn’t have to go home with a little ball attached to a tube coming out of my belly. During this hospital stay I was forced to sell my bib for the Chicago Marathon which took place the Sunday that I was released from the hospital. Looking back, I think this was the moment I gave up just enough to let life beat me down. During my recovery I slipped into a pattern of behavior that involved gaming all night and eating terribly. I became anything but active, as I seriously enjoyed the clan I had joined. Over the past 2 years I have put in over 100 hours on a few different titles.


When I joined MFP a few months back I intended to use this as a place to log calories in order to make sure I was fueling properly for my runs as well as lose the 40+ lbs I had gained in the 2 years since my surgery. I registered for a half marathon as well as a Tough Mudder in order to push myself back into the world of fitness. I was on the site an entire month before I decided to get some friends. I had stumbled into the forums one day while at work, and I witnessed some funny, beautiful, and just downright amazing people giving great advice. Since then I have added some people on this site that I am absolutely humbled by. I have added people that crack me up. I have added people that are super supportive. And I have added people whose stories make me feel less alone. My personal approach to this website has been sporadic at best. I’m not always the most positive, hell, I downright troll……often. I just want to thank my friends, and even many of you who aren’t currently on my FL. If it weren’t for all of things that make this site great, I don’t know that I would have kept coming back, and the coming back kept me moving, and will KEEP me moving from here.

Thank you.