My progress after training for a marathon! Photos galore!

I've spent the past 6+ months training for the NYC marathon, and it has been a roller coaster in many ways. But it's finally almost here - next Sunday, November 1st, I will run my FIRST marathon!

I have never been a runner. In fact, it's still hard for me to use that term to describe myself, because I don't always even like running. But a marathon was one of those bucket-list things, and in the end, I'm so glad I pushed myself to do it. I've gotten so much faster and my stamina has gone up like crazy - for comparison, I ran a half marathon about a year ago and my pace then was around 11 mins/mile - now my long runs are at about 9:30 mins/mile and shorter runs are closer to 9 mins/mile.

But it hasn't all been great. In fact, these past 6 months have been some of the most physically and mentally taxing of my life. The worst part was that I was seeing NO changes in my body. I didn't lose a single pound for months - I constantly fluctuated between the same few pounds. I tried eating more, I tried eating less, nothing worked. I posted on the boards and found out that lots of people experience no weight loss when training for a marathon, because training is so taxing on the body. I finally accepted that I wasn't going to see the physical progress I had hoped for.

And then... BAM. Just these past few weeks, I dropped five pounds out of nowhere. These past two weeks I lost half an inch each off my waist, thighs, and hips, and smaller amounts off a lot of other places. I've been stuck at 23-24% body fat for months... today, suddenly I'm 21%. (I know that's probably not entirely accurate, it's an online calculator, but the point is that progress has been made.)

I don't know why the "whoosh" finally happened, but boy did it happen. I finally feel strong, confident, and beautiful. I'm not where I want to be, but I'm finally getting there! All the running and weight lifting is paying off. So I thought now was a good time to take some progress photos






Not "ripped" yet, but I can see more muscle definition than I ever have. I'm back to the size I was in college, except this time I actually have muscle! I can't wait to keep going and see where I am in another six months.

I'll probably post here again next weekend after the marathon, assuming I survive

Oh, and my stats, in case anyone is curious:
5'4"
24 years old
~135 pounds
~21% body fat

Bonus: I just found these photos I took in March for comparison...