A Milestone

After six months, I suppose I could put together a new blog post. Better than waiting a year, like last time!

Today is a big milestone for me. It was on April 15, 2012 that I went for my first run. Up to that point, I had never been an active person; in fact, I was the exact opposite of an active person. 😂 But my mindset had gradually shifted, starting with walking daily, and with encouragement from some running friends, I gave it a try.
Now, 10 years later…I’ve run THREE MARATHONS (what!?), 12 half-marathons, and countless 5ks and 10ks. I still run 5 days a week and am in fact training for my 13th half-marathon in June. It’s amazing to me that I’m still doing it ten years later! I actually miss running when I can’t do it, and I still plan my trips (most of them for hockey tournaments these days) around running. Here are some photos of me in my running journey over the last 10 years.


This is me with my friend Katie at one of my first half-marathons in 2013. I had a time goal, and although I don’t remember what it was (much faster than I am these days!), I do remember it was SO windy that day! But Katie stuck with me and helped me to get to my goal finish. We were SO happy to be done, as evidenced by our smiles.


Top image is me with my oldest at the 2013 Kona Chocolate Run, where I paced him to a goal finish for a 10k. the second is a photo of me with my youngest at the 2016 Strawberry Run, where I fooled him into thinking an 8k is not that much farther than a 5k, lol.
I have been blessed to run with my kids many times. They are now 20 and 16, and although they don’t run with me anymore (they have their sports, and running is not one of them!), the memories I have of our running time together when they were still young enough to want to spend quality time with their mom, are priceless.

This is me with my three best friends and favorite running partners at the 2016 Leap Year run. We’ve run a lot of miles and shared a lot of laughs and tears through those times. Running with friends is the best kind of therapy. 

My best and favorite marathon, the 2015 Glass City. I finally beat my goal of a sub-5 hour marathon, thanks to five amazing relay partners! These five runners, including Jamie, ran a leg of the relay alongside me as I ran the full. Truly the best idea I never had (I stole it from someone else, ha ha). This is such a great memory. Each of these ladies talked me through many miles, and I remember all the conversations like it was yesterday. I crossed the finish line with Jamie, which is still my favorite running memory in all ten years that I’ve been running.

Working the camera at mile 25 of my most recent marathon, despite how miserable I felt at that moment.  I will run another marathon someday, when my kids are out of school and I’m not scheduling my training around high school sports. It’s HARD, but the feeling you get from knowing you finished, even if it wasn’t a great time, is still priceless and amazing.

That was me just yesterday, after running 4 miles in 25-30mph winds! I ran two miles out into the wind, and it was SO hard…I felt like I was standing still at some points even when I was running. But the two miles home felt like flying!!! My pace wasn’t bad for being SO windy…ended up being sub-11, which I was happy with. On Wednesday, I ran a 9:40 for a three-mile “pace” run. I’ve been doing my pace runs at sub-10, with my longest one so far being 5 miles last week. I do not expect to run that pace for my half (I’ll be happy with a 10:40 pace and a 2:20 finish), but every time I start the run and think that this will be the week I go slower…it doesn’t happen, lol. We’ll see what happens with Monday’s 6-mile pace run. 😉
I was that person who said I’d never be a runner…in fact, there is documented proof of it somewhere on Facebook, lol! But I have found that it has amazing benefits and I can’t imagine my life without it now. My weight may fluctuate (I’m still struggling to lose about 7 pounds right now to get back to my preferred weight), but I know I’m healthy and more importantly, happy, so I have no plans to stop.
Thanks for reading!