It Starts Now...

I am not much of a writer - but I do believe in the power of writing goals down. I do it for work, I will sell X number of houses a month, I will call X number of Realtors, etc., so I decided that I should do the same thing for this new adventure I have set out on. I have to give credit for the "blogging" idea from my BFF Karen, who just started a blog of her own. I thought to myself- what a great idea and if I publish it, well then there really is no quitting and I have a place I could laugh at myself, scream from frustration and then celebrate my accomplishments. My daughter and I have decided to train for a marathon - Yup, a marathon.

For those of you who are my friends and/or family-stop laughing... This came about for many reasons; something to do together and it's definitely a commitment-physically and mentally. So we sat down at dinner one night when my love was out of town, Hailee with a margarita, me-well a vodka and soda and we made a plan for it. Hailee has promised me she will help me train, help me with the nutritional aspect of training for a marathon. I'm going to hold her to it. Hailee picked out the marathon the next day. August 13, 2011 (19 weeks away), and made our training calender...she wasn't about to let me out of it now that I've committed. By the end of April - our 1st 5k.

We start the morning of March 31st. We're both stretching and I'm feeling good-excited.. Well, she explains that we'll be running for 3 straight minutes at a faster pace than I normally do, then we will walk 3 minutes, and so on.. "I can do this, this is easy" I think to myself.. HA! I typically run a 9.30 minute mile-not bad for an old lady I think. I run at her pace and minute 2 I am breathing HEAVY but hey I can go another 60 seconds. OK Good, now I get to walk. Long story short-I got the dry heaves - pisses me off, I hate that. You can't run when you have the dry heaves-Bill beat me in a race in 2003 when I first moved to Vegas over the dry heaves. I get through, Hailee encourages me and gives me some advice; "You need to learn to run through it". She proposes that I find 5 reasons WHY I want to do this. I take the next couple of days to ponder this. I have a few reasons, but don't find it necessary to write them down. I talk with Bill about it, figure I'll run it in about 4 hours 30 minutes -WHAT-That's a long time...I don't know how long I thought it would take me, but geez that's a long time.

Well Friday is my "rest" day, and Saturday I was late getting going so I didn't work out or run at all. See, we run on Thursdays/Saturdays/Tuesday ONLY and then Monday/Wednesday/Sundays are cardio days without running. So you see, I already didn't make one of my days....that CAN'T happen again. This is serious stuff people. Sunday, I get home from work and decide I will run today, without Hailee - I know what has to happen; today is my distance run-3 miles. I get ready to go, stretch (this is new to me, not much of a stretcher), put my ear buds is and take off-good steady pace, I'm not going to stop, I WILL keep going. It was a beautiful spring evening, great music in my ears, my "girls" are secured safely with 3 safety harnesses (yup-you read it correctly) and I feel good. I know you all thought that I was going to say that I quit, started walking, who knows, but NOPE I finished. During that time I thought a lot about my life, WHY I wanted to do this marathon, what it would mean to me, and I came up with the 5 reasons I will run this marathon, 26 miles, and I will finish.

1. Tom Rowland - Tom battled cancer for 18 months before this world lost him. Working out for Tom was always a priority. During his battle, when he felt weak Karen would talk of him heading to the gym and when that couldn't happen he bought weights so he could lift at home. I will not quit- if Tom Rowland could workout battling that horrible disease then I can run 26 miles!

2. Commitment - 19 weeks of training, pushing my mind and body to achieve what I have set out for it.

3. Daughter - What a wonderful opportunity for me to work on something I really don't think I can do with my daughter by my side. She will be leaving for law school sometime in August/September for 3 years and what a memory for both of us.

4. Health - I have never been a healthy eater - to diet I skip meals, nibble, etc., so this is my way of changing that bad habit - eating small meals throughout the day and getting proper nutrition.

5. Self Esteem - I would be lying if I said that I wasn't doing this to get myself back in shape. I would like to look in the mirror over the next 19 weeks and see my body changing for the good. Since my surgery I haven't really cared, and I need to care again.

So there it is.. My very first blog. Off I go to cardio train.