I Can't Beleive I Ran the Whole Thing!

26 1/2 months ago, at age 59, I could barely walk ¼ mile without excruciating foot, knee, and hip pain. I weighed nearly twice what I should and felt worse with every passing year. I started working with a personal trainer doing strength training, walked as far as I could with plenty of rest stops, and started logging my food. Weight loss and strength gains were immediate and steady. My goal was to be able to walk 1 mile without stops, which I thought would take at least a year.
A few months after I started, my trainer encouraged me to participate in a local 5K event with others from his fitness studio. He said it was ok to walk, so I did. I also was joined by a couple of personal friends, which was a godsend because my husband was sick that day and couldn’t come. I was plagued with some of my worst shin splits ever for nearly 2 miles, which slowed my already slow pace to a crawl. We quickly dropped back to last out of a field of 1000 but my friends didn’t care and kept encouraging me along. It took me 1 hour 20 minutes to finish and my trainer and fitness buddies were cheering me on at the finish. I beat the millions of people in Seattle who were home watching TV that Sunday morning.
That’s me, on the far right.



Fast forward 2 years. Today I participated in this same event for the 3rd year in a row. I was down 147 pounds from my starting weight, wearing a size small shirt (compared to 2XL two years earlier.) I ran the entire 5k and finished in half the time of my first 5K! Thank you to everyone on MFP who has encouraged me and gave me race day tips.
That’s me, 2nd from left.



Here are links to my full success story. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10419681/2-year-transformation/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10347057/my-success-story-made-the-front-page-of-the-newspaper?new=1
I expect to be posting “I’ve reached my maintenance goal” very soon.

60 yo
SW 301
CW 154
GW 150
26+ months