I ran 100km on Saturday!

I completed my first ultra marathon on the weekend. It took me longer than I expected (18 1/2 hours) but I'm damn proud! According to my GPS watch the total distance I covered was actually 105.8km because I got lost a few times.

2 years ago almost to the week I was over 230lbs and had a hard time walking up a flight of stairs. I started running (for the first time in my life) in January 2013; 7 1/2 months later I completed a full marathon and since then my focus has been this race.

I don't believe in excuses, I think if you want something bad enough you can find ways to make it happen. My biggest struggle throughout training was finding balance and not letting it interfere with my limited family time. I have a full time job that takes me out of the house 50+ hours a week as well as 2 young kids so even without running, life is incredibly busy. That means 3am & 4am wake ups were very common over the past 4 months. The longer my training runs went the earlier my alarm was set. Each day my goal was to be home before my family woke up which meant I would run 15-20km before my day even started. As training peaked, it became inevitable that my 6-8 hour weekend long runs would go on long after the kids woke up and it was very difficult to continue running knowing I was missing time with them. Luckily I didn't have too many of those days.

The race was an amazing experience. It was the most difficult thing I have ever attempted in my life and I'm SO glad I did it. I had so many fears coming into this race: running at night, getting lost, encountering wildlife, running through the exhaustion and nausea, the 20+ barbed wire fences I had to climb through, falling etc. But I faced each one and it makes my finish that much better. I literally took everything one step at a time.

Also in case anyone was wondering my step count according to my fitbit was 123 900 steps for Saturday (and about 10900 steps on Sunday because it reset after midnight)! The total calories burned was about 7000 (so if anyone wants to lose a 'quick' 2lbs that's probably the only way you'll lose 2lbs of fat in one day! I actually lost 7lbs but most was water weight).

On Sunday I was asked if I'd do it again next year and my answer was 'no way'; less than a week later I already know I'll be doing another ultra in 2015 and now just trying to decide which one.