Hot Mama

Let me introduce myself, I'm a runner. Well, to be more precise, I've always ran a little for exercise, but I just recently got more serious about it. It's funny how you can do something half-ass for a long time and not think anything of it, but then one day a light goes off and it becomes something that you just love to do. That light was turned on after a friend challenged me to run a half marathon. I seriously thought she had lost her mind, there was no way I could run 13.1 miles. But then her 65 year old mother decided to run it, so I pretty much had to do this or look like the biggest loser on the face of the planet. So I did. I trained for 3 months and I did it! It may have taken me 2 hours and 42 minutes to complete, but I did it. And I felt great about doing it. I followed a run/walk training plan for beginners (www.jeffgalloway.com) and was shocked that I was able to run/walk my way to 13.1 miles, especially without any injuries.

In high school, I was very athletic. I used to love to play basketball and softball and I remember conditioning for both sports by running laps around the high school track. But that was 20 years ago. Since then, I have looked at exercise as a way to eat more but still wear the same size clothing. All that changed six years ago, when I had a baby. The 9 months that I was pregnant, I managed to gain 38 pounds, which took me three years to lose. And then it took me another three years to gain 20 pounds of it back. I'm so mad at myself for letting this happen. My daughter and husband refer to me as "Hot Mama", but I feel anything but hot these days. While training for my last half marathon, I was able to lose a little of the weight, but I still have about 15 pounds that I'd like to lose, so this leads me to my next half marathon. I just started training for another one being held in October. Wish me luck!