September 2008: I RAN MY FIRST HALF MARATHON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 HOURS, 18 MINUTES, 45 SECONDS (2:18:45). I AM ON SUCH A HIGH FROM THIS. Who would have thought that a fat, out of shape lazybones could, in 16 months, go from the couch to running 13.1 miles? It was a great race and definitely something I will cherish for the rest of my life!
June 2008: I just took a fitness test today on base. I am in the fit range! My blood pressure is excellent (the guy was swooning about this and very impressed), my resting heart rate is 65 (down from 77 last year when I started, holy cripes was it bad!!). Surprisingly my aerobic fitness was only fair but the guy said that could be because i am still carrying extra weight. I was shocked that it was only fair (the categoies are needs work, fair, fit, excellent). My back flexbility is on the high end of fair, and my bicep strength is excellent (I got a 61/73, whoohoo for me. Still cant do a pull up though, dang it!). My body fat is down to 27% whereas a year ago it was 35% (healthy for women is 24 and below so I am about 8 pounds from being there). My total fitness score was 71 out of 100 so I am in the lower end of the fit range but I am still in that range! They did my measurements today and I have lost a total of 8 inches from my waist since I started last May. I have lost 5 inches off my hips. I am feeling pretty good about myself.
And the trainer I worked with from last summer wants to do a success story display on me. They just started this idea at the gym I go to on base and I will be the first person covered. She has pictures of me before and now, with a story about my weight loss and what I have done. I feel really, really honored and hope I can inspire someone else. If I can do it, ANYONE can!
May 2008: Welcome Back to me! So DH came home in November 2007, I lost another 4 pounds, and then yo yo ed around with 3 (gaining and losing, gaining and losing). I saw that I can do maintenance pretty well but now that he is gone again for another year (home February 2009), I am going to hit my goal!!!!! I am running still, training for my first half marathon again (hurt my Achilles pretty badly in February and had to take a hiatus), and am just trying to raise two boys on my own the best I can.
I hope you find my website helpful, I was pretty good about updating it in the beginning of my journey so keep checking back as I mark off my goals, one by one. I have decided to start training in January 2009 for a full marathon so I am very very excited about that!
My race schedule:
Park 5k: 2/10
YMCA 5k: 4/12
Down & Dirty 5k: 5/17
Seattle Furry 5k: 6/8
R4TC 5k: 6/21 (new personal best 31:15, whoohoo!!)
Seafair Relay (6.5 mi): 6/29
Down & Dirty 7k: 7/4
Auburn 5k: 8/8 (new personal best 30:08!)
Fort Lewis Army HM: 9/13 (2:18:45)
Seattle HM: 11/29
Santa Shuffle 10k: 12/6
Tacoma City Half Marathon: 5/3/2009
5Seattle's (FIRST!!) Rock n Roll Marathon: 6/27/2009