Should I be proud?

Last year I decided I wanted to start exercising, I have spent the last 9 years dedicating my body to the science of being a balloon.  9 months growing 1 year shrinking,  and the cycle continued with the shrinkage being less and less.  Here is the perfect time for an embarrassing confession, don't you love those? When I was pregnant with Jackson, I gained the least amount of weight, I think it was 25 pounds, which was down from close to double that with the rest!  I was pretty sure that loosing that weight would be a piece of cake then I would start working on the other 30 I had yet to loose from the preceding four pregnancies.  So I get home and two days after birth I stepped on the scale.  I was shocked to discover that after having a 9lb baby I lost 7 pounds, how on earth is that possible?  I blame it on the milk supply coming in, is that valid?

My Goal

Last September a good friend did a Triathlon sprint.  I knew I wasn't in any shape to join her, but I really wanted to do a 5K.  It is so hard to find one on Saturday.  I have come to love SeeJaneRun.  They do 5K and Half Marathons, and also a Triathlon sprint.  In a few locations, lucky for me they do one of each close to me.  In January, one of my New Year's resolution was to run a 5K.  I had 6 months to train and I set a goal of running the whole way and under 30 minutes.  AS time went I found multiple excuses, the biggest being I don't want to run by myself in the dark.  The second, I don't want to run in the rain and the third, I don't want to run by myself.  Kind of makes it hard to train.  Well the time change happened, then the weather, and another good friend signed up for the Half Marathon.  I asked if she wanted to run together.  Being that she is in far better shape then me I thought it would help me keep up.  I found out that I have recurring shin splits, which made running very painful.  We would meet up at a track so she could run and I would walk.  I decided I will still exercise, but try to let the shin splints heal.  Then on race day I could run, if I injured myself then it would be OK, I would deal with that pain when it came.  Up until this point I would say (yes embarrassingly so) that the furthest I ran with out stopping was MAYBE .25 of a mile.

So race day came and I was pretty positive I would walk the whole thing and my goal was to do it under 45 minutes.  I was walking about a 16 minute mile. So I would have to pick up the pace.  We watched all the amazing ladies leave for their Half Marathon then 30 minutes later we were in the que waiting for the start.  I decided it was best to stay towards the back and things would clear out.  There is something amazingly invigorating about running surrounded by people.  I actually ran a whole mile without stopping.  Then it went down hill about 1-2 minutes running/jogging then 2-3 minutes walking.  It was awesome to have the iPod to help me time myself.

As I was getting closer to the finish line I was wondering if Jeremy made it there and if my family would see me cross the finish line.  I was totally trying to keep emotions in check, I don't know exactly why, but I had to talk myself out of crying.  I wasn't going to look then I heard it "Go, Mom"  "We are proud of you!" I looked just in time to see my own personal cheering squad!  It was so awesome.

I will not lie and say I am totally fit.  I told Jeremy it is hard to brag about this because I didn't achieve any of my original goals.  Not to mention I had several friends doing the half marathon, when next to that 3.2 miles is not much!  But I am proud I finished and I ran more than 2/3 of the run.  My crowning achievement that I am most proud of was that I ran the first mile.  I feel I should clarify when I say run I mean jog!   I did it in 10:58.  I did the whole thing in 39:34.  That was probably close to my high school run when I didn't care, you know when you didn't put forth any effort.

The theme for the race was "I run for Chocolate and Champagne" I am not sure I totally get the running then consuming alcohol, putting religious beliefs aside it just seems wrong.  I did however claim my empty glass with chocolate and a real medal that I actually earned!  Don't I have the best fan club a girl could ask for?

As for today, I have a sore ankle, which didn't stop me from wearing my nice black high heal boots to church and my shins hurt, but definitely not as bad as they have in the past.  When my training partner can run again we are going to train for the triathlon Sprint in September.  My goal is to finish in under two hours.  Is that possible? I don't know but I am going to try and I definitely need friends to keep me getting up at 6:00am to either swim, bike, run or cross train.  If you want to join in the fun and go at your own pace, cause I am SLOW, let me know.  There are a few people who have already said they want to try it as well.  I am excited!

And by the way I am proud of my achievement!