Part two of my story

Ran 5 miles this morning with Holly and Rachel. It went by pretty quickly, which was nice. We didn't get home until 11 last night, so I was in bed at around 11:30 and then up at 5:30 for my 6 o'clock meeting. We just kinda ran around the park and the neighborhoods back there, it was nice and quite. It wasn't too hot yet, which was nice. The splits went like this:

mile 1 10:26
mile 2 10:09
mile 3 10:12
mile 4 10:22
mile 5 10:24

Total 51:38. It looks a little all over, but we were a little confused about which way to go. Nice easy pace though.

So, the next part of my story goes like this:

June 12, 2005 was the date of my very first 5k. It started at 8 and it was in Orland, which is 1/2 hour from my house, so in my perfect fashion I got up around 5 am. I got to the race with plenty of time to spare, which was good because I had to use the porta potties about three times. My sister ran with me, because I talked her into it. She got there and we lined up to start. We started in the back, obviously. The gun went off and we began. The race seemed like it would go on forever, and my time would indicate that it almost did. I wanted to quite about 80 times, there was no real point during the race that I was having fun, until the end. I remember Margie had to tie her shoe and so she stopped and I thought to myself this would be the perfect time to walk a little and then I thought of all the training that I did and all the pain and discomfort I went through and that spurred me on. I thought if I stopped now and walked that that was going to take away a little something from the experience when I finally did cross the finish line, so I went on. I'll never forget the feeling that I got when I saw the finish line, it was awsome. There were families and they were all cheering on someone they loved. I ended up crying my way in (which will become a theme in my races), because my husband and boys weren't there. I didn't think it was important at the time, until I finished and there was no one there to cheer for me, this accomplishment that I didn't give enough value to to the people around me, except for Margie. She was there for me, telling me what a great job I did, I'll always be grateful to her for that, she's the best sister anyone could ask for.

I finished in 34:11. It wasn't a chip timed race, so my time was probably a little better than that, isn't that funny how I was already looking for the seconds to come off my time. Anyway, I was hooked on races after that. Last summer I did two more races. The second one was the end of July in which I turned in a 32 something and then the third one was the end of October, which I had a time of 30:12. So I did get better as the summer went on and I was definatley a changed person after that summer.

I really thought I would train and race that one race and then stop. Nope. I was supposed to run a race on Thanksgiving, but it was like 10 degrees out and I had a cold and had company in and had dinner that day, so I was a DNS. I continued my training even without a race planned through the winter. I was just base building and then I signed up for the Shamrock Shuffle this past spring. That was fun, and I kept building. Then I ran the Soldier Field 10 Miler and that went so well that I though I would take the next step, and run the marathon, what is the point of all this building, if I wasn't going to do anything with it?

I am now three weeks into my training. I had two weeks off before my training started due to a hip flexor injury, but that feels pretty good now. I am going to run the 1/2 on August 13th also as a prep race for the marathon. I'm excited and nervous at what is going to happen, but I'm just trying to stay focused week to week and see what happens. My main goal is to finish the race in one peace and not hating running when I'm done.

So, I didn't plan on posting all that at once like that, but I got carried away and there you go, I'm done. My story. I was never an athlete, or a runner before. I never ran in High School or really participated in sports in school. I was never someone who would work out, mostly because I have always been thin, so I never saw the point. But after turing 30, well, you know how that goes, and if you don't, just wait. I didn't put on a lot of weight, but I had two babies and no real physical activity, so I needed to lose about 15 pounds. I lost 5 of it before I started the whole running thing through my diet, but then nothing. It's taken me a little over a year to lose 10 more pounds, but I did it the right way, I think for me.

I've got to go to bed now, too many late nights and early morning runs does not make Carrie a happy girl. Thanks to anyone who read this, I hope it can inspire someone who doesn't think it's possible to know that it is.