620 days on MFP + First HALF MARATHON race!!! (pics)

Today was my 620th consecutive day logging into MFP.


In the past 620 days I have:

Progressed from a wheelchair to walking to running.
Logged over 440 hours of exercise.
Run over 1500 miles.
Lost over 100 pounds.
Gone from 270lbs to ~165-167lbs.
Dropped from a size 24 dress to a size 8/10.
Learned that anything is possible.

Here's me in the summer of 2011.



620 days may seem like a lot, but really, it's not. It's less than two years. What I've done in the last 620 days is crazy. I went from a partially paralyzed spinal cord injury patient in a wheel chair, to a half marathon race finisher - and I RAN the whole thing!

Today was AMAZING!!! I ran in the St. Luke's Half Marathon in Allentown, PA. It was my first half marathon race.

Partway through the run. SO HAPPY!!!



My fan club (husband, 3 kids, brother and sister in law) met up with me a few times on the course, and this was at mile 12.5. What great timing, I really used their energy to finish out the last bit of the race.



Finished running! 2:24:59. That's 11:05min/mile avg pace and also includes standing in line for the bathroom at mile 5.5! Certainly not the fastest but I'm so happy with how the race went. This was my fourth time running this distance (I ran it three times since February prior in training), but I felt SO GOOD the entire time I was running. It was my first time running this distance where I still felt like I had fuel left in the tank when I was done.



What's up next, oh I signed up for a little thing called the Philadelphia Marathon, which is in November 2013. FULL Marathon training starts in 8 weeks!!!



Answers to Frequently asked questions:

I'm 32 years old, 5' 8.5", mother of three kids ages 2.5, 4.5, and 7.

I lost the weight by using MFP for logging every single thing I ate and drank for the first 11 months. That is where I lost the first 100 pounds. During this time I was eating about 1500-1600 calories/day. I also exercised daily. Starting with walking, then adding in jogging and now lifting.

My current routine is running 6 days/week, lifting 2 days/week and 1-2 cardio cross training sessions per week, lately I've been liking swimming. I take one day of complete REST every week, so the rest of this stuff (run/lift/cross train) is jammed into the other six days.


Thanks for reading!!