You can do anything!!

You can do anything.  No, really you can.  It sounds so cliche but I assure you it's true.  You may have to work hard.  You may have to sacrifice.  But you can achieve anything you decide to achieve.

A lot of people, friends mostly, have asked me how I started running.  I'm a normal enough girl.  I'm just like them...  Except I run.  So why do I run?  I grew up in Colorado, one of the healthiest places in the country.  Everyone has an outdoor hobby (running, biking, hiking), and it is rare that you see someone who is overweight.  I grew up watching these people.  I knew that one day I wanted to be like them.  Something about them intrigued me.  My neighbor in elementary school used to run around the neighborhood.  I'd see her on the streets regularly.  When I did an internship at the University of Colorado my mentor was a cyclist.  She looked like it (fit).  These people were amazing to me.  We live in a culture where exercise is a chore.  We dread gym class from the time we are little and the mile run is the worst day of the quarter.  I was always intrigued by these people who seemed to see it differently.

In high school I signed up for track my senior year.  I was a sprinter in middle school.  I was actually pretty good I just lacked the interest and parental guidance to stay involved.  4 years later, I was no longer a sprinter.  I ran the 800, and I never broke 3 minutes.  But I enjoyed it.  To get in shape I initially would run 2 miles on my mom's treadmill each morning.  It was so hard.  But I felt so good afterwards.  After my first year of college, I came home for the summer and just decided to go for a run one day.  It had been such a long time and something about being home just made me want to.  I just ran and ran.  Then I clocked the mileage in the car.  I had run 3 miles!  It was by far the farthest I'd ever gone without stopping.  So I set a goal to keep it up all summer.  I can't remember exactly what it was.  It was something like run 3 miles 5 times a week.  And I did it.  Every week the momentum just built.  The more runs I completed the more I wanted to do.  And then it began.

That summer I met another student (now a good friend) who had completed a marathon.  I was in awe. 26.2 miles.  I just couldn't imagine.  So I put it on my to do list :o).  A year passed and I found myself back in Boulder Colorado for another internship.  There's something about that place.  I started running again.  This time I was not enrolled at CU so I didn't have a gym.  Instead of 30 laps on the track (can you believe I did that 50 times in a summer??), I ran outside.  I did this all summer, going to bed around 9:00, before all the other students, so I could wake up and start my day off pounding the pavement.  I would do an out and back that totaled 3 miles.  And then I started doing 5 miles.  I was gaining endurance.  I was becoming that runner I'd always wanted to be.

My college is in a country town in northern Louisiana.  People there do not live an active lifestyle, much less organize road races.  But it's about four hours from Dallas :o).  In my mind I decided the path to the marathon started with some small races (5Ks) in Dallas.  I envisioned myself racing on the weekends, going further and further distances until I was a marathoner too.  It didn't happen.  I was a very busy person as an undergraduate, but the main road block to my running success was me.  I made becoming a runner much harder than it actually is.  We make time to do what we truly want to do.  I didn't make it a priority.  I pushed my running goals to the side and focused on other things.

The many effects of a nonactive lifestyle is another blog entry entirely, but the most obvious one is weight gain.  The following summer I left for an internship (note that it was not in Colorado), and I came back to Louisiana the heaviest I'd ever been, up until that time and since.  I was very unhappy with my new weight so I decided to 1) start tracking my calories and 2) start a 10K training plan.  As I think back to that time now, even though I had no idea what I was doing, I did a lot of things right.  I implemented specific things.  I didn't just say I wanted to lose weight, I figured out a plan that would result in weight loss.  I also didn't look for a quick fix.  I don't think I ever considered weight loss fads, I knew I had to do it the right way, through diet and exercise.  I also didn't come up with a number of calories to limit myself to everyday.  I only used a website to track my calories, and that alone caused me to make healthier choices.  I remember I stopped eating refined grains and simple carbs.  Wheat pasta, wheat bread, nothing white.  Obviously I know a lot more about this now, but I had the right idea.  I didn't actually plan to run a 10K, but the plan I found seemed doable and I enjoy completing things like that.  It was like a checklist of runs to complete.  Over several weeks the weight came off (~20 lbs! oh, to be 21 again, lol), but more importantly I had experienced how easily I could build up to a 10K:

1. Print a training plan.
2. Do the training plan.
3. Run the race.

At the end of that school year (May 2008) I did just that.

Getting ready the morning of my first race

Running the Bolder Boulder 

A little over a year later, I ran another 10K (Oct 2009) and 6 months after that (April 2010) I followed the same simple instructions to run my first half marathon.  And then, in December 2010, I officially became a marathoner :o).  Now I've completed 5 halves and 3 fulls.  I have another full next month.

My second race, Run Austin Run 

You can do anything.  No really, you can.  It may not happen overnight.  The first time I ran more than 2 miles was the summer of 2005 so my journey to becoming a marathoner took more than 5 years.  But I completed it.  People will try to discourage you.  Sometimes it's not intentional and sometimes it definitely is.  A lot of people (who don't run marathons) have tried to tell me that our bodies weren't made to run marathons, and that it's bad for your knees, etc. (a blog for a grumpy day cause I actually really hate that lol).  But there are plenty of other people who will support you and give you the resources you need to succeed.  Starting is the hardest part.  We often put far more energy into thinking about things and procrastinating than it takes to actually get them done.  So just get started.   Make "one day" today.  You can do anything.  No really, you can.