For about as long as I can remember, I've enjoyed being physically active. Seeing some of the Rocky movies as a kid was definitely a source of inspiration! My dad used to take my brother and me with him to the track and to the gym on a regular basis. We would run, lift weights, and play all of kinds of different sports (racquetball, basketball, football, baseball, etc). Though high school, college, and even into my mid 20's, I managed to stay physically active. Like maybe people, I got married, started having kids, and let myself put on weight and get out of shape. Then I tried to start working out again, only to realized it was much harder after 30! However, after making some dietary changes, I was able to lose and keep off the extra weight.
Growing up, I really didn't enjoy running. Sure, I would run in order to accomplish a specific goal. For example, to lose weight or to train for a race that a friend had talked me into running. But once the goal was met, I didn't have any interest in continuing to run.
This all changed last May. In fact, I'll make a separate posting to talk about this later. But for the first time in my life, I actually began to enjoy running. My first month back, I entered a local 5K race. I went out slow, still had to walk a good part of the way, and was exhausted afterward. But it was a lot of fun. The environment was very contagious. Several months later, I entered my first 10K and actually did pretty well. I ran an 8:15/mile pace and was able to run the whole time.
Once my training runs got into the 12-13 mile range, I knew that a half marathon was achievable. So I decided just to go for it and train for a full marathon. Training officially starts next Monday, May 13, 2019. I'll cover some of the training details later. As crazy as it sounds, I'm actually looking forward to this. To me, there's something very satisfying about setting a goal, putting in the hard work, and then giving it your best. And if a lot of others can do better than my best, who cares? If you give your best, as far as I'm concerned, that's something to be proud of.
Just wanted to let you know what's going on. I'll be back with more later. Thanks and God bless!
