Inspiration

Guess what.....

I am officially registered for the now sold out B.A.A 10K ! oh yeah, oh yeah!!!...that is all... or maybe not on Cinco de Mayo i went out for a 5 mile run hoping to push it to 5.5 miles in  light of the Mexican fiesta instead a ran a whopping 6.22! so so happy now i feel i am ready to go the distance a finish and hopefully beat my time of 1:17:01... I registered a finish time of 1:15:00 but hope i pull more of a 1:05-1:10 since my run involved some hills. The Boston race is supposed to be a nice flat out and back course so I'm thinking I'll defiantly be able to knock a few minutes off my time. So until next time..GO RUN!

Welcome

Eat Run Sleep Live

Hello all. this is a record of my journey into becoming a runner. I have attempted to become a runner for several years and never thought i was good enough ..that is until now. I'm reaching a mile stone in my life the big 3-0; and i figured it was about time to stop dreaming and start doing.

Running attempt number 1: Age 18 freshman at college ... after  years of being the chubby kid in highschool , i felt liberated my a new fresh experience re-inventive running duration: 3 weeks! Life got crazy I got pregnant , left college and became a mom and once that happens everything else stops..no more dreaming just surviving.

Running attempt number 2: Age: 20 Sophomore in college.... after a few years of balancing mommy hood and higher education I felt I found a burst of inspiration to be a single mom who had the ability to have it all. I started walking everywhere, back and forth from home and school and work study , i lost weight and was engaged and was researching beginner running programs; almost running duration 2 months.Then life happened again i was once again a single mom and  my dream of running was put on the back burner once again.

Running attempt number 3: Age 24 College Graduate and full time Employee. I actually was running this time around . I graduated college, got hired right out of college and was single but in a really good place. Feburary 2008 I saw my reflection in the hall way mirror at work and was disgusted with what I saw, while working and commuting 1.5 hour home and back i went our to lunch frequently and gained 25lbs. So i committed to lose 25lbs before my 25th birthday in September. So i did some google-ing and found the couch to 5k program and I did great. I started the program March 3rd and finished May 2. I lost the 25lbs in    g9 weeks . I reached my goal and felt ecstatic that i could call myself a running so that following week i set my ipod to run a 5k and i finished in it 24 minutes . I was so shocked I was capable of such an unbelievable time. But then im not quite sure what really happened but I never made that bridge over to race world that I always dreamed of. I know work got a  bit stressful and I has studying for my certification in  my field for that October . My runs became more sporadic and then the heat of the summer was really hard on me so I ran less and less until I wasn't running at all. Then I attempted to so run a few months later but my running fitness was gone so i walked and then just lost interest.

Running attempt number 4: Age 27 Full time employee and new apartment owner. I moved closer to work so my commute was no longer 3 hours per day. I was living on my own for the first time and I felt empowered to run again. I think at this point I only put back on 5-10 lbs of the weight I previously loss. I came across the Disney Marathon weekend in a magazine advertisement and I was hooked. It was August  and I thought Id have enough time to embark on a marathon , I wanted that mickey metal badly but didnt think i could do it alone. I knew I was insane so I asked a co-worker to buddy up with me so we could attempt the Chip and Dale relay...two months into training she gave up,  I lost motivation  and that didn't happen. 

Running attempt number 5: Age 28 Full time Employee and a new job. So I changed jobs within my field. New place, fresh chance for reviving my running career. Disney was still calling my name so in August 2012 I felt I could squeeze in training for the Disney princess half marathon in 2013. I restarted the couch to 5k program starting at about week 4 and by the end of September I ran an ipod 5k in 36 minutes and once again I was ecstatic because I felt this was it I was going to finally be a real runner. Then October came around and as I was running down hill on a misty afternoon I stepped wrong and twinged my knee and officially became injured. So I read a whole bunch of advice online and took a break waited a few days and tried again...pain still persist so I waited some more.... my recover ended up becoming defeat I knew there was no way to make my deadline so I quit once more.....  

Running attempt number 6: Age 29  Full time employee and same job... So this is it. Im turning 30 I have to stop letting myself down .As of January my only goal this year is to run a half marathon by my 30th birthday, So the first week of January I did something different I searched for a race to enter. I searched for a race during my birthday weekend and found the ZOOMA Cape Cod Half Marathon . I thought about how stupid I would fell if I registered for a race , paid and didn't finish so with this pressure... I entered the half marathon. And the rest is the present....

Hopefully this will be my last attempt at being a runner. Hopefully it will really stick this time around. 

Present time.... So far I have run a real official 5k. This past March I entered a Celtic 5k along with a co-worker and finished in a whopping 42 minutes... it was the worst experience of my life . I was scared I made such a huge mistake, the nerves was unbearable but i'm glad I did it. My whole family was there to support me and it was wonderful having someone in my corner in a sea of 3000 participants.

 A week later I set out to run 3 miles and ended up running 5 miles for the first time ever my longest distance to date. then went on vacation and my runs got sporadic and slowly got back up to running for 5 miles in an hour. And today I finished my first virtual 5k. It was the spring celebration virtual marathon ,5k ,10k, half marathon and I entered a time of 36:19 and couldn't be prouder. So i may have missed out on being a fast runner since I don't have my youthful legs anymore but hopefully I can be a smart runner and stay focused and successful. 

So I have sort of become race obsessed once I found out about virtual running I end up signing up for 5 of them at once. They're cheap , they give out awesome bling and I don't have to travel for them, whats not to like. 

Here is my Race schedule for 2013 (so far):

March :

Celtic 5K (3/10)

May:

Spring Celebration Virtual 5k (5/1)

Memorial Day  Virtual 5k (5/25-5/20)

June:

Summer Sunset Run Virtual 10K (6/21-6/23)

B.A.A 10k (still waiting to register for) (6/22)

July:

Running Mad Virtual 10k (7/1-7/31)

Virtual Half-Marathon & 5k Challenge Summer heat series (7/20-7/28)(doing both)

[Side note during the 2nd week of July to the 2nd week of August I will be fasting the month of Ramadan so I have no idea how racing and training for a half is going to work out but ill figure it out some how.]

August:

Run for your lives Zombie 5k obstacle course new york (not registered for and may not have time for it)

September:

MY BIRTHDAY (9/27)... Virtual birthday 5k?

ZOOMA Cape Cod Half Marathon (2/28)

October:

Hershey Half Marathon (10/20)

Blue Moon 10K (10/26)

November:

Virtual Turkey Trot???

December:

Space Coast Half Marathon ...Big Bang Series!!!! (12/1)(not registered yet)

2014 goals:

Hershey 10k

Disney Princess half marathon

Hot Chocolate 15k/5k Philadelphia

Runners World Half Marathon

Rock & Roll Half USA, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Providence, New Orleans, Las Vegas

Space Coast Half Marathon 

and this doesn't include all the virtual runs.... So welcome to my journey enjoy!