Please bear with me as I stumble through the world of blogging. This is my first attempt so I'm sure there will be lots of bumps in the road.
I am a mom and a runner. That explains the name of my blog.
This blog is a place for me to blather on about stuff in my life. Mostly running, but I'm also a birder and an avid horse racing fan, so those subjects might sneak in from time to time.
I started running in 2004. I had never run before and quite honestly never wanted to. My attitude was "I only run if someone is chasing me". One night I was watching a news magazine show and it was about a woman training for a marathon in Hawaii. She was about my age and I was captivated by her story. I thought "Wow, if she could do that, so could I". That's when a burning desire to do the L.A. Marathon was born.
There were a few novice running mistakes along the way. Very early on I got injured from doing the dreaded "too much too soon". That's when I discovered the Couch to 5k program. I can't recommend it enough!
In 2005 I ran/walked the L.A. Marathon finishing in just slightly more than 6 1/2 hours. About a month later I quit running.
Flash forward to July of 2011. I had gained a good deal of weight and I was finally ready to do something about it. I restarted the Couch to 5k program. I did a few 5k races that year and everything was going well until one morning in early December I reached into the fridge to move some tomatoes and my back went out. My doctor told me not to run until my back quit hurting. To be honest I was getting a little burned out and I welcomed the excuse not to run.
Round about March of 2012 I was ready to resume running. So once again I turned to the Couch to 5k program. 2012 was going well. I was doing lots of 5k's and really enjoying running. My last 5k of the year was early December and I came out of that race with a stress fracture. What is it with early December?! Once again I was sidelined. Only this time I wasn't happy about it. I had signed up for the Never Land 5k at Disneyland and had been anticipating that race sine July. (I did do the Never Land 5k, I speed walked it, and a RunDisney monster was born).
The only good thing that came out of my injury was that I discovered how much I love running. After being told I couldn't run I found myself longing to run. I looked wistfully at other runners. I wanted to be running. This was a first for me. I had always looked at running as something I needed to do, not something I wanted to do.
In February of this year I again turned to the Couch to 5k program to ease back into running after my stress fracture had healed.
I've reached this place where I love running. Yes, I'm a slow plodding runner. I'm never going to win a 5k, heck I'm never going to place in my age division, but that's okay. I just love getting out and running. I love the physical and mental challenge of it. I'm not trying to impress anyone (I'm far too slow for that). I do it for me.
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