Running victory after so much success!

Today I ran my first ever Half Marathon. Before this year I had never been a distance runner even when I was in shape and healthy. After two 5k's and two 10k's, one being a hard trail run just two weeks ago, I signed up for the half marathon.

The Snohomish River Run is a flat course on both a road and paved pedestrian trail. I finished in 1:49:12.
I made it to mile 12 before I had to walk a little because of calf cramps. Walked a 0.1 - 0.2, then jog until I cramped again and walk again. Before this run the longest training run was 10.4 miles that I did last Saturday. I need to learn to eat and drink better during the long runs.

I joined MFP in mid-January weighing in at 278 lbs. After a week of just checking out the site but not using it, I stepped on the scale at 281 lbs. That was Monday, January 23rd. As bad as 281 was, I was at least 20 lbs down from my peak weight. I went all in on using MFP the way it is intended, dedicated to measuring portions and logging all foods and got back to exercising in the gym. In January I was not physically able to run if I had wanted to. Between the excessive weight and weakness / damage from previous injuries, my right knee would buckle from my knee cap trying to dislocate from nothing more than the shock of absorbing the impact of landing a running stride. Had a similar problem in my left knee several years ago, so I started doing the old physical therapy exercises to strengthen my legs around my knee as well as using the elliptical for cardio. In early April I jogged 0.2 miles on the treadmill and my knee did not pop apart. Small steps, but progress. I started jogging outside on a dirt / cinder track at a public middle school about 1 mile from my house - walk the dog to the track, jog / walk intervals for a mile then walk back home. Slowly built up strength in my legs and cardiovascular endurance.

But I have always hated running. Running just to run doesn't make sense to me. So in late April I signed up for a 5k at the beginning of July. I like to push myself but need a goal, need a reason, and the race was it.

Well, my training went very well and I ended up feeling ready for a 5k earlier than planned. June 23rd I ran a pretty flat 5k trail run and then a road run 5k on July 7th. Then I signed up for a 10k road run on August 18th. Then a very hilly 10k trail run on October 13th. Followed by today's Half. All along my weight kept dropping, down to 240 in June, 220 in August, 210 at the beginning of October, and I've been trying to maintain at 210 even though I've still lost a little more.

Portion control, logging EVERYTHING as accurately as possible (food scale is my friend), logging my exercise and eating back most of my calories burned.....IT DOES WORK! My activity level is set to lightly active to represent an average day without exercise for me, then I use a HRM to calculate calories burned. I log the lower of the MFP database or my HRM for calories, I figure neither are 100% accurate and I like being conservative. When I hit a near month long plateau at about 245 lbs, I eventually dropped from a 2 lbs per week goal to 1 lb per week (dropping my daily deficit from ~1000 to ~500 calories) and the combination of more calories and reduced stress on my body jump started things again and the weight started dropping off again quickly.

IF I can do this, anyone can do this. Just be honest with yourself and keep at it every day! If you have a bad day, and I have, don't give yourself a guilt trip, just make tomorrow a good day!