Runners will get what big deal this is...

A little back story....

I have been overweight/obese/morbidly obese most of my life. I have not been at healthy weight since early grade school. So to say I was not athletic growing up would be an understatement. I occasionally rode my bike or walked with my friends, but I never participated in games of tag or played in organized sports.

In 2004 I started on my weight loss. The only exercise I got was from walking and the occasional workout tape/DVD.

I started running Memorial Day of 2009. After three month of walking to get my body used to going 3 miles, I was ready for my first "run." My goal that day, to run 3 full minutes without stopping. Which I did. But I thought I was going to die. Then I burst into tears when I realized even though I had lost 80 pounds, I was still very out of shape.

With the support of my husband (who had been running several years at that) point, I stuck with it. Running a little more every time I went out. My goal was to be able to run a 5K, then I wanted to do one of the Disney Races (most of which are 1/2 marathons), so that meant more training and more running.

Before doing my first Disney race, I signed up to the 1/2 Marathon in Salt Lake City. This was course my husband knew and the course stays open a long time because it merges with the Marathon course, so no time pressure to complete the race.

In April of 2010, just 11 months after my first 3 minute run, I ran 13.1 miles. I did it in 2:58:42 seconds, which was awesome since my training was stalled for two weeks due to a strained muscle and my longest training run ended up being just 7.5 miles. But I was hooked... and over the last two years I have now done a total of six half marathons. Better my time with each race.

Now, to the point of my post... In January I ran the Tinkerbell Half Marathon with a finishing time of 2:38:09 seconds. My best time yet!

This past weekend I ran the Salt Lake City Half Marathon (my third year of running it) with two friends that I had trained with over the winter. One of my friends wanted to finish with a 2:30:00 time, but I was hoping for 2:34 or 2:35.

Imagine my shock when I finished in 2:21:31! I knocked 16 minutes off my best time -- in less than 3 months! :noway: And the weird part was the first three miles where a struggle... was having the total "bad run day" at the start of the race where everything hurts and I couldn't get my breathing right.

I am still in a bit of a shock at the whole event... but very proud that I did it.

But now I'm wondering how the heck I'm going to beat that time.... Guess I'll find out in July when I run my next Half Marathon! :laugh: