Why I am running

I started running a September to help deal with anger I was trying to deal with over a break up.  I wasn't doing so well committing to it, but knew it would help.  So I came up with a plan to run a race and decided that the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot would be the perfect goal.  I convinced a few friends to run with me and we all committed to training.  I don't know what I would have done without my girlfriends.  They may live an hour away but they have helped me more then they will ever know!

Anyway, at first I tried to just try walk/running and increasing my running time.  But it wasn't really working.  I finally found a 6 week couch to 5k training program and stuck to it - well part of it.  :)  I can't say I did the cross training piece faithfully, but I did the running as recommended.

In the meantime, my sister-in-law decided she was going to start running too.  So we signed up for the Run thru Hell on Halloween.  I walk/ran it and finished in about 48 minutes, but I got to learn how the race registration and start works so I didn't have to figure it out and be nervous about it on Thanksgiving. 

My goal was to be able to run the entire race on Thanksgiving, no walking!  And I did it!  But only because I ran super slow.  One of my friends has some foot issues, so I asked her to walk so I could run at her walk pace.  She was fantastic and did it for me!!  Love her!!  I think she is the only reason I made it through the entire race.

Now it it is the Friday after Thanskgiving and I have another race scheduled with my sister-in-law.  (Yes the very next day after my furst run!)  This was an evening 5k in Howell, before the Festival of Lights parade.  I really wasn't sure I would be able to run the Friday run, but again, I DID IT!  I was so excited.  And I improved my Thursday time by 4 minutes.  :)  I just kept telling myself I know I can do this - I just did it yesterday, so no walking allowed.  And to the guy in the crowd at the top of the last hill - loved you!  When I was ready to I can't go one more step he said - "doing great hon, only 2 more blocks".  He totally motivated me to finish! 

So that is my running story in a nut shell to date.  I decided I wanted to start this blog in hopes that it will help motivate me to keep going.  It is the Thursday after Thanksgiving and I have only ran about 2 miles this week so far.   I have two more races in about 10 days and one on New Years day.  So continuing to train is important.  Next year, we are all running the Turkey Trot again, but instead of the 5k (really called the Stuffing Strut) we are planning to try to 10k. So training is really important!! 

Now it's time to get off the couch and run!!