Thank you so much to Stan for starting this challenge and now organizing the group!!! I'm Helen and I have been a runner on and off for most of my life. I have been running consistently since February 2013 and planning to continue indefinitely! Training for my first marathon!! Race day is May 25, 2014!! And since I live in the boonies of Maine and see way more deer, bald eagles and fox than other people running, I have found the challenges great for motivation and support!! I find running helps me body, mind and soul!! Mileage goal for 2014 is 850!!

Hello I'm Tor. I joined the March challenge a little late, but am pleased to say I completed my goal of 50 miles in April. I'm working up to a half marathon in October. I have run one before, a couple of years ago, but have got out of the running habit - Steve's challenge reall helped me to focus again!
A bit about me - 48, mum of three, live in the UK, where it rains a lot and I don't like running in the rain! But nor do I like running when it's too hot. Morning's my favourite time for running and sometimes I run with my dogs (red setter and springer spaniel) cross country.

Hi, I'm Mala.

I'm running for quite a while now. I've run 5Ks, 10Ks, halfs and fulls and the most I enjoy are halfs.

I never race the same location or race i.e. I never repeat a particular race in future.

I run on an average anywhere from 20 - 25 miles per week and I'm 100% outdoor runner. I get sick running on thread-mill and will not run on thread-mill even if you dangle a Turkey Jerky in front of me. (Turkey Jerky b'coz I don't eat Beef).

Editing: Thanks Stan for the wonderful work. This wouldn't have been possible without your initiation. Truly Appreciated. :flowerforyou:

I am Linda. I have 3 kids, Rachel is 22 and a nurse, Tyler is 20 and is in the Air Force (Guards) as a jet engine mechanic and he also is starting a custom motorcycle business, and my daughter, Molly is 13.
I played tennis, ran and biked, (I used to do races up the local mountain roads on my bicycle) but started doing running races in the year 2000, working my way up to marathons this past year. I didn't want to run distances until I heard my son was brag to one of his friends that I ran twice that day, then I thought...okay...I want to be known as "My Mom the Runner" for the rest of my life.
Now I run 40-65 miles a week depending on the season. In the dead of winter I do run strictly on my treadmill, and now I am only on it once and a while, preferring to run the roads in my neighborhood.

Hi! I'm Christina! I'm 37, married (9/21) with 4 lovey kitties

I wouldn't call myself a runner, per se. I call myself a triathlete! LOL I got started in 2010 when I completed my first sprint tri (Iron Girl). My training for the 2011 and 2012 Iron Girls were...shall we say...lacking. LOL....particularly 2012. That was the year that I gained over 50 pounds in like 9 months, and was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. The end of 2012 and beginning of 2013 were spent trying to get my meds at the right level, but once my doc got them stable, I was ready to rock! Lost almost 40 pounds and completed the 2013 Iron Girl, as well as the Old Forge Tri (intermediate distance), and a couple of 5K's. :bigsmile:

However, winter is my downfall as far as motivation goes...I did great keeping up with my running (outside - I live in upstate NY) until New Year's, when I got sick and was out of commission (workout-wise) for over two weeks, and then once I was feeling better, I kept being thwarted by the polar vortex. :grumble: Outside of a handful of workouts, I pretty much had done NOTHING from New Year's until April 19th.

On my plate for 2014:

Just completed my very first 10K on 4/19 in 1:29:12 - not bad after 3.5 months of doing next to nothing LOL!
My next 10K is June 14th
Delta Lake Olympic Tri (1500M swim, 25 mile bike, 10K run) July 20th
Iron Girl Sprint Tri (600M swim, 18.6 mile bike, 5K run) on Aug 3rd
Old Forge Intermediate Tri (1000M swim, 24 mile bike, 4 mile run) on Aug 17th
hoping to do a metric century ride (62.5 miles) in Sept
looking to to at least one half marathon (sept, oct or both)
a number of 5K's

Ultimate Goals:
Sub 30 minute 5K
Sub 60 minute 10K
Sub 2 hour Iron Girl
Complete the local Ironman 70.3 (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, half marathon) before I turn 40 - so either 2015 or 2016. :happy:

My name is Brigid and I live on an island in South Carolina. I am a Yankee and use words like 'groovy' in normal conversation. I am 40 & married with 2 teenage boys. I took up jogging several years ago, but I didn't train well and ended up hurting myself. I wanted to keep moving, so I became a Walker. I have done the Locomotion (3 days, 30 miles) twice, and the Savannah Rock-n- Roll Half Marathon once. I am getting back into jogging, but starting slow in intervals. I did a 5k this weekend and actually beat my previous jogging time, even with walk/jogging intervals. I am more fit now and am looking forward to the challenge keeping me on track. I am not competitive by nature, except with myself. Posting this goal makes it real. :flowerforyou:

Thanks for the invite, Stan! I'm Elizabeth, I'm a single full time working mom of a 4 year old girl. We live in Boston. I tried c25k for the first time in 2011. It didn't work out. I kept getting very sick and couldn't continue with the program. I have asthma and my daughter is in daycare so i get sick very frequently. Anyway i tried again in 2012 and got running to stick. I started out really slow, in June of 2012 i was running 5k in 40 mins. I started training for my first half marathon and got my time down to 29:52 in 2 months. Now my 5k pr is 26:04 but after 5 half marathons I'm still struggling to get my HM time down to sub 2.

Anyway now that winter sickness season is behind me, I'm trying to get my weekly mileage up to 35+ mpw before starting marathon training for my first full on November 2. Before that I have HM #6 on May 18th that I'm going to run with my daughter in the jogger, a 10k in June and HM#7 in October.

Thanks for the invite.

I am Michael -- A 54 year old band director in Mississippi. 2 years ago (January, 2012), I was 344 lbs. I had a hard time getting up out of chairs because I was overweight and both knees would bother me as I got up. Once up, I could get around ok, for the most part... as long as I did not go up stairs. I had done some running around the time I met my wife but it was not really ingrained and I sustained a little knee issue (I think due to poor form thinking back on it and pushing too fast)... In January, 2012, I started dealing with the weight issue and started dropping a few pounds strictly by calorie restriction my first month. Then we joined the YMCA in the nearest decent sized town and I continued dropping pounds. I started at a size 48 pants (loose fit) and about 344 lbs. By the beginning of the next school year I was easily in about a size 38 pant and down to about 250 or so (I seem to recall). Now, I am in a size 32-34 loose fit and weigh about 225.

Even so, I was not really able to start running again. I did substantial amounts of weight training and walked with an incline but did not dare to run any distance until probably about 2-3 months ago when my knees have stabilized fairly well and I have been able to get back into it. This month (April) was my first month that I found the challenge and met my goal of a mile per day (despite a one week issue with scheduling and transportation)... I did meet my 30 mile goal for the month and have surpassed it at about 32.25 miles so far. Next month's goal will be 45 miles with some sub-goals mixed in.

I look forward to joining you folks. I am no major runner (though I can run a 5K distance a couple of times per week).... Feels good to be back into it and knees are holding up fairly well so far for the most part.

Thanks for the invite.

I have been taking part in the challenges for the last few months but this group will be really useful.

I started running again Sep 2013 with the C25K then moved on to the C210K. About 6 weeks into the 10K training I picked up HM training.

I completed 2 HM's last month and have increased my weekly mileage to about 30 miles, but the running has to tie in with the cycling and other exercise I do so I don't think I can increase the mileage anymore.

Hoping to do a full marathon next year but won't start training for that until about 16 weeks before.

Hopefully May will be a better month as I injured my ankle this month and have only just started running again after a couple of weeks off.

Hi,I'm Nina,but people call me Ninja (yes,like ninja turtles,and yes,I like it ).I never really put much thought in how much I run monthly.I do a lot of different things,like dancing,jogging,riding a bike,walking,some days I'm in jim,others I go to aerobics.This month I wanna focus on running,so here I am.
xOxO

Hi, I'm Carol from Michigan. I've participated in the monthly challenges before but am new to the group. I've been running off and on for years but never stayed consistent and always struggled. Last year I set a goal of running an entire 5k (a year ago I could not run a mile without walking), which I did in July. I then signed up for an 8k in August and a 10k in November. Then I discovered that I really like running 10k's. I ran three more through the winter and a half marathon a few weeks ago. Right now I have no races on my schedule but will do a half or two this fall and whatever local races I can fit in over the summer. I'm still deciding how many miles I want to run in May, I'm hoping to spend time on my bike too!

Hi! I’m Kathy from Florida.
Why did I start running? My husband had been running for 4 years and I was always supportive of his training and attended the race events. I was the “photographer”. He even purchased a higher priced camera with a special lens so I could get great shots of his approach to the finish line. I was overweight, stressed at work and had ailing parents that I had to care for. I spent no time on myself. Finally, in March of 2013 I had enough. It was time to focus on me. I started MFP to track my food intake and quickly realized that if I added exercise I could eat more. My husband wasn’t going to quit running so I might as well join him.

Running Journey - My running journey started April 2013 with an unsuccessful attempt at C25K. I was overweight and had no endurance base plus faced the Florida heat. (I only run/walk outside). I switched to walking, building up to 5 miles a day at 4.5 mph. In August, I started back with C25K. Once I was able to run the entire 30 minutes, nowhere near 3.1 miles, I pushed myself to run the 3.1 miles (39 min.). I then increased my distance by .5 a mile a week until I was able to run a 10K (1:17). I started using Runkeeper sub 65 10K training plan to build my speed but switched to a HM plan in December as I wanted to run the Gate River Run – 15K in March. The increased distance also increased my speed. (Lost 70 lbs - March 2013-2014)

Race History –
March 2014 – Ortega River Run – 5K (48:48) Fast enough to qualify for a seeded Gate River Run start but I had already registered. Never imagined I would be able to seed at this point!
March 2014 – Gate River Run – 15K (1:35:28) Ran all but .5 mile at mile 8 going up the “Green Monster”.
April 2014 – Corporate Run – 5K (28:11) Accomplished sub 30 goal!

Current Training –
Sub 55-5K – Runkeeper – free training plans
http://runkeeper.com/search/fitness-classes/running/finish-a-race
Stronglifts 5x5
http://stronglifts.com/
HIIT –:30 fast/1:00 slow, :30 fast/:30 slow, :30 fast/:15 slow – 2 weeks each
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ultimate-8-week-hiit-for-fat-burning-program.html

Goals –
Sub 27-5K
Sub 2:15 HM
Loose 10-15 pounds
Decrease BF%

Future Races –
Memorial Day 5K – May 2014
Run for the Pies 5K – June 2014
Tour de Pain – August (4 mile beach run, 5K and 1 mile sprint over 2 days)
Tri2Btuff – 1/2 Marathon (October, November and December)

Motivation –
Joining the neighborhood running club and participating in races.
MFP monthly challenges (December- April). Not only does this challenge provide accountability, reading the other posts provide motivation and ideas to improve my own training. Also provides a great way to journal my running journey.

The creation of the Monthly Challenge Group is a great enhancement! Thanks Stan!

Hi friends!:drinker:

I'm Ira from Bangalore. Finding MFP has been a good chance for me to stay motivated and connect to new friends with similar aspirations. At first I was keen on losing weight but now the work out has become a source of joy and challenge. I take occasional break though to not get addicted!! I got totally hooked to running and then came injuries.....

My last challenge was full of injury and recovery.This time I have decided for variety so no more long distance running but short sprints for me. Many commitments so would be running 30 miles only in May. Things can go up hopefully!

Hi all,
I'm Rachel. I'm trying to improve my running in prep for becoming a triathlete at the age of 50. Running always scared me despite having played hockey all through my 20s - I didn't seem to be able to run without a ball to chase!
After several false starts I'm up to running about 4 miles at a stretch. I have entered for a 10k on 24 May so want to push up mileage and speed. Have set a big mileage target to try to ensure that I carry on going after 24th. It will be too easy to do the 10 k and sit back thinking it's all done.
Cheers all!