Miles and Miles and Miles....

 Soooooooooooooooooooooo....... It's been a while since I've wrote.  Let me explain.  I'M TRAINING FOR A FLIPPING MARATHON!!!!  My life has been insanely busy lately with all the running, fund raising, kids and school and did I mention running? It's been crazy. So let me play catch up.


I ran my  second official half marathon this August. I was so nervous before this as I had visions of reliving Cap City all over again. The whole week before I couldn't sleep and I was having nightmares over this race. It's in August, it's hot and it's 13.1 miles!
I had trouble deciding if I was just going to run a slow training pace or really push myself and try to PR. Thankfully it was a cool morning so I decided to go for it. I paced myself behind a couple for about 8 miles and  after they left me I was left to my own devices to finish. I felt AMAZING until mile 11 and then I got the goose bumps of doom and started to feel the energy drain happen.  I was able to maintain though and did not stop to walk. I crossed the finish line at 2 hours 22 minutes and 28 seconds. I blew my Cap City time out of the water!  I cried when I saw my official finish time and I road the high from that race for days.  It was so good to see all the hard work I've put in this summer come into fruition.

Fundraising has kept me quite busy lately. I offered up photo sessions for charity and that helped raise money pretty quickly but it also gave me a lot of extra work to do! It's worth it though. We also got a chance to go work on the house that we are raising money for! I can safely say that I should not count manual labor as one of my talents nor is looking good in a hard hat. I looked like Steve Erkel.

If you are interested in donating to me via an online donation you can click the link below.

 https://www.razoo.com/story/Amanda-E

So lets talk about the all the running. Below is a picture from my second ever 20 mile run. It was rough. It was so hot and at about mile 14 I started to fade fast. By mile 16 I was over it and I had taken to a run/walk just to finish.

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The following week we did 18 miles and we mixed it up a little with some faster miles thrown in between the slow ones. It was nice to break up the monotony of  the long run and it made me feel pretty good knowing I could pull out a 10 minute pace after 15-16 miles. This run was a good one and I'd like to credit the large amount of cookies I ate the night before at a wedding for the awesome time. 

So that brings us to today. Today I ran the furthest distance to date. Let me start by saying I ate enough carbs to kill a person before this run but I have to say.... it worked. I did not hit a wall at any point. I felt strong and I ran faster than I had set out to, especially since it was a warmer day.  I had some good running buddies to get me through the miles and some awesome signs posted along the way from my running group to put a smile on my face.  Today made me feel like I can do this now. I felt like I could have ran it today. I only hope I feel this good on the actual day.

So we are all caught up. I will try to do better about posting. I have my 1  year runniversary coming up on October 3rd.  I am running a half marathon that day and last year it was my first 5k.  Here's to progress!

 P.S.  Please go donate to my charity!  https://www.razoo.com/story/Amanda-E

Life's A Beach...

Ahhhh vacation. Breaker of diets and exercise routines. In the past I have let vacation break me EVERY YEAR. I may be doing good on whatever fitness or diet regimen I was doing at the time but when vacation came around I would consume more junk food in a week than one could think humanly possible.  I was determined for that not to happen this year.

When we were looking for hotels to stay in on our trip down, I wanted to make sure they had a treadmill so I could get my long run in before we hit the road again for another 5 hours. I woke up early Saturday morning and was the first one down to the fitness center so I snagged the treadmill for 6 very long and painful treadmill miles. (Treadmill miles are far more difficult than road miles in my opinion.)  I was lucky enough to get to spend time with my oldest while I got through that painful run. We watched Spongebob Square Pants on the TV while I ran and he tried out the stationary bike and elliptical.

Day 1 was a success!  

The next morning I woke up at 5:30 AM to get out and try my first run in the sand. I started off strong with a 10 min pace but I quickly discovered that running in the sand is not quite the same as running on the pavement.  I managed to squeeze out 4 painful miles before I decided to call it a day. Slipping my feet into the cool ocean water after that run was an amazing feeling. 

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 The next day I decided to explore the other direction of the island. I ran to the very end and circled around to the sound side of the beach. It was a peaceful 6 mile run and I decided to set down and enjoy the view before heading back to a house full of sweet, darling, little cherub faced angels waiting for me when I got back ;-) It was vacation after all!

^^^Reward for getting up at 5 AM to run ^^^

Diet wise I did pretty good  until about half way through the week. There were chocolate chip cookies involved, that's all I can say.  They are my down fall and the bane of my existence. That and Nutella. Nutella is heaven as well.  Anyways, I'm getting distracted here!  The diet was decent until the cookies.   I did go run 4 miles to offset the damage I may have done but  things declined after that. There were s'mores and bacon involved. Aside from those momentary lapses in judgement, I did ok. I could have done better but I think I squeaked by with minimal damage to my waste line. I know that I won't be going back to eating that way because I don't like how I feel after eating things I shouldn't.

My last run for the week was on Friday. I woke up before 5 AM so I could fuel up for my long run. I was only going to do 7-8 miles that day but once I got out there, I felt so good so I kept going. I left the music off and it was just me running to the sounds of the ocean, my feet hitting the sand and my water bottle swishing away in my hand. That water bottle actually provided a nice little cadence for me to run to! I talk to myself a lot more when there's no music involved.  Mentally.. not out loud! That would be weird.  Running with no music can give you some nice time to think about anything that may be on your mind or time to meditate and relax. Let all your stresses go and just focus on your breathing and cadence of your feet hitting the ground.  I ended up running 10 miles on Friday and could have probably done more but I got hungry and decided to call it quits at 10.  I'm going to credit this awesome run to all the carby goodness that I had ingested over the 2 days prior.  I went slow but I enjoyed this run the most. It was peaceful and relaxing.

Overall I think the week was not a complete wash. I did manage to maintain most of my healthy eating with only a few cheats.  The running was a major success. I am proud that I didn't turn into a complete sloth during vacation.  I managed to log 26 miles in that weeks vacation.  I honestly just liked getting out and seeing the area around me. The views in the morning were amazing and I was one of the only people around to see it.

Getting Started.

 This is me and this is where I came from. I was over 205 lbs when I decided that I did  not want to look this way any more. I started running because after 3 kids I wanted to get my body back. My husband ran his first half marathon in May of 2014 and I was absolutely amazed that anyone could run that far! He was our hero and that's when I decided "I want to do that!"
The getting started was not easy. My husband bought me my first pair of running shoes  and all new workout gear for mothers day to help support me getting started on this journey I had decided to take. When I got home and tried on that running gear, I refused to come out of the bathroom. I was a fat girl in tight clothes and I wanted no one to see me in that stuff! I marched my butt upstairs and found a baggy pair of shorts and a baggy t-shirt and in tears went out for my first run. It was not easy because every pound of fat I could feel jarring through my legs and feet as they made contact with the pavement. I did not make it far as you could imagine. I would pick a point within my view and run to it. This continued on for a couple of months until I decided to sign up for my first 5k to really give myself an obtainable goal. I talked my friend, Jill, into signing up with me and this is when our training really started to kick into gear. I remember the first time I ran a full mile without stopping I felt like a super star! A whole mile! I continued to push further until that mile turned into 2 and finally 3.  I ran my first ever 5k in 42:08 with a pace of 13:01/mi.   I went out hard at the beginning and ended up having to walk some which infuriated me. I wanted to run the whole thing!

 This picture is me with my friend Jill at our first race.  We did it! We may have thought we were going to die at first but we got through and we finished it and immediately went home to sign up for more races. We kept pushing our distance further and further and gradually my weight started to drop off too. Below is a picture of our first 4 mile race.

After we had a few 5k's under our belt we decided to sign up for the Capital City Half Marathon in May of 2015. We thought about doing the 10k but after a little debate decided to go for broke.  This is the same race that my husband ran the year before that had inspired me to get started in the first place.  After I initially signed up I had that "holy crap!" moment where I thought "what have I just gotten myself into?!?" but that quickly subsided and my mind started to wonder onto even BIGGER things.  

I wouldn't let myself even think the whole thought out in my head for about a month but the thought was there none the less. Could I? Should I? Is it dumb for as little time as I have been running?  Can I run a marathon???  26.2 miles................... That's insane! Right?    But the thought wouldn't leave me. I kept thinking about it and finally I let myself say the words out loud.  It was just to myself because I didn't want anyone to laugh at me but I said "I am going to run the Columbus Marathon in 2015."   There!  It was out in the open now. I had said it.  Now... to recruit someone to go through the pain of training with me.  JILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I texted her a few days later and broke it to her gently that unfortunately, whether she wanted to or not, she would be running the marathon in the fall. She eventually caved and agreed to do it with me. At this point my husband decided to sign up as well. Yay! I had a support group now!

 After I made the commitment to myself I decided to look for some real training since I figure I'm gonna need some help getting to this goal. I looked around and found one of my local running stores had a free training program. WINNER!  I decided to go for the marathon training program just because I wanted to prove to myself I could do it. I showed up for my first group run at The Columbus Running Company in January and I put it down in writing what I was going to do this year. This pic below was my first CRC group run and it was -5 degrees out.  I did 5 miles that day and felt like a champ. 

This piece of paper is still hanging on my fridge. It reminds me of how far I've come and where I still have to go.

I went through the CRC training program like a champ. I mean we have good days and bad days of course but over all I discovered that 1) I am a cold weather runner. 2) I fall a lot 3) Trying to chew sports beans in the winter is not ideal.  I ran up to 20 miles in my training program. That 20 mile run was glorious. I felt great. I took my time and I enjoyed exploring the area on my own 2 feet. 

The picture above is me running my 4th 5k. I had a finish time of 26 minutes! Bam! Talk about improvement! It's amazing what losing weight and persistence will do for you!

So lets talk about the Cap City half.  It sucked. I sucked....  I was probably a LITTLE bit cocky going into it knowing that I had ran this distance at least 5 times in training runs. I thought I had it in the bag but boy was I wrong.  The temps were probably in the 60's that day and it was humid and I felt like I was melting. I know... it's sad. 60 degrees and I feel like I'm going to have a heat stroke.  I felt good until I hit mile 6 and I started to get goose bumps and a feeling of all the energy being drained from my body. I lost my running partner, Jill and after I lost sight of her I had mentally given up. Thankfully about that time my running coach from CRC, Eric, saw me and ran with for 2 miles which got me through to mile 8. I had never been so happy to see a familiar face and I was so grateful for him to take the time to push me and coach me along my slump.  I wish I could say that the slump ended at mile 8 but it didn't.  Like I said, I had mentally given up a that point.  After quite a bit of walking and a last minute surge to the finish line I finished my first half marathon in 2:42 and I wanted to cry. I was so frustrated at myself for days after this event but I decided to learn from it and not to let it get me down. I learned that I needed to run more hills, train myself better mentally and to relax when running.   These are all things I'm still working on.  Below are two pictures. Me with my husband, Barry, with our finisher bling and then the second is of me crossing the finish line. That smile on my face is pure relief that that race was over with.  

That brings us to present.  I'm almost a month out from my first half marathon and I have begin with a new training schedule for my full marathon in October. I hope to share some of my journey here and maybe someone can learn from some of the stupid stuff that I am bound to do :-) I am still training with the Columbus Running Company but through their charity group now called Love2Reach. I love running with this group. Everyone is so supportive and they have so much advice and knowledge to share. If there is one thing I can say that I've found most helpful is finding a support system that can help you get through the tough times. Whether its a husband, friend or running group or all 3! Find someone you can go to with your questions or you can share your pain and joy with.
Well that is enough for now. I have written a novel but this is me and this is how it all started.