My college friend Kim and me at the Disney Race Expo. I feel like I am repeating history a lot over the last couple weeks. Some of these things are good things...some are not so good. Let's start with the good news first.
Almost exactly four years ago tomorrow, I ran my very first half marathon at Disneyland. I weighed over 190 pounds, and I worked my tail off just to be able to finish that half marathon in under three hours (some of the pictures at the top of my blog show me four years ago at Disney). Tomorrow I will be repeating this race for the first time since 2010, and although I'm not doing it for time, I am hoping that my time will be better, and that it will be much easier than it was that first year. I worked hard to get across that finish line, but it wasn't pretty. I made it in just seconds under three hours with a finish time of something like 2:59:58. And while I was so proud of my accomplishment, everything hurt during the race, and I could hardly walk for two weeks after that race. My thighs were so tight that I actually had to walk backwards down stairs.
Fast forward to today, and I am running most of my races in under 2:20, and after my half marathons now, I am a little sore, but I am fine after a couple of days. I am looking forward to really being able to enjoy this race tomorrow, and not feeling like I am going to be gasping for air, and not so sore that just about every muscle and joint in my body aches.
Another thing I will be repeating, and I'm stretching this a little to stay with the theme, is that usually I run one race and then take a couple days off. Well today I actually completed the first half of the Disney Dumbo Dare. This morning at 5:30 a.m. I was taking off from the start line to complete a 10K around California Adventure and Disneyland. My time was actually pretty good (1:02:08--47/569 in my age division) considering I had my very first fall ever during a race. We were running up the first hill and there were people who should have started farther back in the race pack that were strolling (no joke) three-people deep. I went to go around them and caught my toe on the curb and went down hard on all fours. Now it did hurt a little (mostly only my pride was injured), but it did slow me up a bit at the start. So tomorrow, I will once again be at the start well before the sun is even thinking about rising, only this time I will be doing a 13.1 mile run through the two parks and through Angel Stadium as well.
Now I need to confess the not so good things that I am repeating. While my exercise continues to be very consistent, my eating has been off since our trip to Hawaii. Not to make excuses from myself, but getting my daughter off to her first year of college in Montana, starting a new job full of all kinds of new things to learn, and just trying to keep my household going have been tough for me to balance lately. I am not eating out of stress, but I am not being very careful with what I am eating. I am not planning my meals, I am not tracking my food, and we rarely have dinner at home these days. All those things together have brought a little of the fluff back to my body.
One way I have grown is that I am not stressing out, I am not beating myself up about it, and I am making mostly good choices for breakfast and lunches. While sometimes my life in regards to food feels a little like I am on a roller coaster ride that seems to never let me off, I am learning to enjoy the ride and realize that it is not worth worrying about. Instead of worrying I just need to reevaluate what isn't working, remember what has worked in the past, and then work to get myself back on the road to the more flabulous me!
Almost exactly four years ago tomorrow, I ran my very first half marathon at Disneyland. I weighed over 190 pounds, and I worked my tail off just to be able to finish that half marathon in under three hours (some of the pictures at the top of my blog show me four years ago at Disney). Tomorrow I will be repeating this race for the first time since 2010, and although I'm not doing it for time, I am hoping that my time will be better, and that it will be much easier than it was that first year. I worked hard to get across that finish line, but it wasn't pretty. I made it in just seconds under three hours with a finish time of something like 2:59:58. And while I was so proud of my accomplishment, everything hurt during the race, and I could hardly walk for two weeks after that race. My thighs were so tight that I actually had to walk backwards down stairs.
Fast forward to today, and I am running most of my races in under 2:20, and after my half marathons now, I am a little sore, but I am fine after a couple of days. I am looking forward to really being able to enjoy this race tomorrow, and not feeling like I am going to be gasping for air, and not so sore that just about every muscle and joint in my body aches.
Another thing I will be repeating, and I'm stretching this a little to stay with the theme, is that usually I run one race and then take a couple days off. Well today I actually completed the first half of the Disney Dumbo Dare. This morning at 5:30 a.m. I was taking off from the start line to complete a 10K around California Adventure and Disneyland. My time was actually pretty good (1:02:08--47/569 in my age division) considering I had my very first fall ever during a race. We were running up the first hill and there were people who should have started farther back in the race pack that were strolling (no joke) three-people deep. I went to go around them and caught my toe on the curb and went down hard on all fours. Now it did hurt a little (mostly only my pride was injured), but it did slow me up a bit at the start. So tomorrow, I will once again be at the start well before the sun is even thinking about rising, only this time I will be doing a 13.1 mile run through the two parks and through Angel Stadium as well.
Now I need to confess the not so good things that I am repeating. While my exercise continues to be very consistent, my eating has been off since our trip to Hawaii. Not to make excuses from myself, but getting my daughter off to her first year of college in Montana, starting a new job full of all kinds of new things to learn, and just trying to keep my household going have been tough for me to balance lately. I am not eating out of stress, but I am not being very careful with what I am eating. I am not planning my meals, I am not tracking my food, and we rarely have dinner at home these days. All those things together have brought a little of the fluff back to my body.
One way I have grown is that I am not stressing out, I am not beating myself up about it, and I am making mostly good choices for breakfast and lunches. While sometimes my life in regards to food feels a little like I am on a roller coaster ride that seems to never let me off, I am learning to enjoy the ride and realize that it is not worth worrying about. Instead of worrying I just need to reevaluate what isn't working, remember what has worked in the past, and then work to get myself back on the road to the more flabulous me!
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