RUNNING...ONE YEAR LATER

Last year at this time I asked myself a question - "I wonder what it would be like if I decided to get really fit?" A simple question doesn't seem like it would hold a lot of motivational power, but for me it did. I looked at it as kind of an experiment. I started out hating to run, especially on a treadmill. But I stuck with it and actually started to like it. I entered some races never thinking I'd do anything longer than a 5K(3.1 miles). Then my competitive nature kicked in and I wanted to get better. So I found a running partner. We've been running together 2 days a week about 4 miles each time. About six months ago my husband finally succumbed and started running again. Tim used to be a serious runner. He ran cross country in college. Now, I have another running partner and a fellow running nerd who likes to talk mile splits and how fast Kara Goucher ran the recent New York Marathon.

One year later I find myself loving to run and signed up to do the 2010 Disney Half-Marathon. My husband and I love doing this together. Last weekend we did our church's annual Polar Bear Run. That was the first race I did in 2008 a couple weeks after starting to run. While I didn't make my time goal, I did set a new personal record and when I look back on last year's time it's cool to see that I ran this year's race 10 minutes faster than last year's.

I highly recommend running. It's hard to start and even now I don't like it until a couple miles in. But the long term results are great. And...you get to eat more!