I want to apologize before you go any further- I wasn't anticipating such a long journey to a half but I guess a lot happens in a year.
My entire journey to this point started after I lost myself. Physically I was there, but mentally I wasn't me. Without going into great detail, I lost myself in someone else and was on a journey to find myself! I made a decision that it was time to go back to the gym- it was time to take care of Natalie- and for anyone who knows me well, knows that was not one of my strong suits at that point in my life. I decided to start going to the gym and knew I needed a personal trainer, so one day, I walked into the West End YMCA (where I had been a member for a year and had gone maybe twice) and just made the decision to get a trainer. Little did I know that she would change my life (which we wont get started on...).
So, I was hitting a point in my training where I was really sick and tired of cardio. I was really enjoying classes and weight training but cardio was becoming so tedious. I was trying every way I could to cut it short, or making excuses to not do it. I've always thought about running and always envied and admired people who could do it. It was interesting timing too- a girl I would regularly do a class with was talking about weight loss and said she lost 100lbs simply by running- on the treadmill no less. So that was my encouragement to start. I wanted to lose weight (not 100lbs but who wouldn't be encouraged by something like that!).
I started talking to my trainer about it- I had no idea where to begin. Luckily she had attempted to run once in her life (she admits it- she HATES running) and shared her learn to run program with me. I decided to give it a shot on the treadmill and followed the plan she gave me almost perfectly. No reason to get injured when I don't even know what I'm doing. So, I went out and bought my first pair of real running shoes that I was using to train and race in...and I trained for that 5k, let me tell you.
I ran what they call 'Fun Runs'- Color Me Rad, almost exactly 1 year ago to this day and was immediately hooked on racing. I ran and volunteers threw coloured corn starch at me while I wore a tutu running away from them. As I type this I realize how ridiculous it all sounds, but it changed my life. I have no idea what my time was on that race- all I know is that I ran the entire thing without stopping, I had "RAD" tattooed in sunburn on my arm (I was in a wedding a few weeks later, so this became a new challenge) and I felt amazing at the end of the run...and I wanted to do it again, but for time. I did some major research about running more seriously at that point (very much in secret) and discovered a lot of things- the biggest of which was that my shoes sucked for the type of running I was doing, and were far too small if I wanted to keep my toe nails forever.
I almost immediately started to consider what I would do next. Another 5km obviously, because seriously, I could never run anything more than a 5km. So I registered for the Scotiabank 5km run through work. It was the perfect set up- I knew I could run 5km, I could raise money for work and I had coworkers with me who wanted to do the same thing, plus I figured if my time was terrible I could disguise it with my fundraising efforts. So I did it- and I was pretty happy with my accomplishment at the end of it. I ran the entire race dressed as a sharpie, my coworker as a piece of paper- we won nothing except the smiles of our cheering stage. I finished the race, and went back to the finish line to watch the guy I was dating at the time cross the marathon finish line. Standing there waiting for him, seeing smiling faces cross the finish line made me want more for myself.
So this guy I was seeing- the relationship didn't last long but what has lasted is the push he gave me to keep running. He was the first person I ran more than 5km with, and it was his encouragement that pushed me to keep going. So I made the decision to run a 10km- but I had no idea how I would do it. The only thing I knew was that the running room was where I needed to go and I did.
I quickly registered for a 10km training program. I ran with the Liberty Village running room and trained for the Yonge Street 10km. I had no idea what kind of time commitment it would take, and it definitely was a time commitment. I also discovered the dreaded hill training, speed training and my least favourite of all, the long Sunday morning run. I also discovered friendships, life changing experiences, running quotes, knowledge about winter running (thank you to everyone who shovels and salts their sidewalks) and a drive to push through. I set a goal of completing the 10km in less than an hour and 10 minutes. I completed it in far less than that, but there were many glitches along the way (which I now attribute to it increasing my time)- vacations, illnesses, dehydration, another break up...but I did it in 1 hour and 4 minutes and 20 seconds. So what else did I do in the middle of this training...well of course I registered for a 15km race (it's coming up soon! We'll talk about it later).
So, this (extremely long- probably unnecessarily) post brings us to today and the reason I've decided to start this blog. I have decided to run a half marathon. And part of me is saying, why are you blogging about this? People run half marathons everyday- people run MARATHON'S everyday...there are monks who run 2 marathons a day over a 10 day period (the things I have learned over this journey)...but, the the other part of me is saying that the people who I beg for money will want to hear about my journey to get to this point. Hell- I want a record of this journey, to remind myself that I did it.
Over the next few weeks my fundraising page will go up and you will see my shining face featured as one of the champions (at which point you should hit the button that says "DONATE HERE"). This blog will feature all of my wonderful training highs, lows, hits, misses, jokes and anything else I think you may want to hear about.
So get ready- I hope you're as excited as I am about embarking on this exciting (and terrifying) (half) journey to 21.1km!
