Two years later

I grabbed a t-shirt to put on a couple nights ago and saw it was from the first 5K race I ever ran, Girls on The Run 5k, two years ago this month.  I stood in my closet staring at a minute and thinking, "Is that really right?  That was just two years ago?"  I was amazed that it was just over two years ago that I started running, about 2.5 years ago that I lost a bunch of weight and started getting fit and active.  In two years time I've gone from starting the Couch to 5K running program (where I struggled to run 90 seconds in a row sometimes) to being registered for a Half Ironman distance triathlon (that's a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile run).

Really?!  That seems like such a huge jump in activity in a relatively short period of time.

It's funny how ingrained in me it's become to be active and fit and push myself physically and mentally, and really any time prior to January 2011, that was not the case at all.  Sure I went to the gym, but I didn't really try hard, nor did I really even know what I was doing when I look back on it.  And I gave up really easily.  Like, really easily.  There was one time (this was pre-Lasik and pre-kids and pre-husband so maybe not the best example since it's not very recent, but it definitely illustrates my mindset) that I hadn't worn my contacts to work and had worn my glasses instead.  I flat out told my friend from work that I exercised with that I didn't like exercising in my glasses, so I thought I'd just skip and go home after work.  Seriously?!  So, see, it's pretty impressive I've gotten where I am.

You hear people say, "Oh I could never do that" in regards to so many physical activities or racing, and it's really just total bullshit, excuse the language.  You totally could do it if you got motivated or just started trying!  I got in the pool in the winter of 2012 and was an awful, awful swimmer.  I could barely make it a full lap without gasping for breathe at the end.  Swimming was a lot harder than I remembered it being.  But I worked at it, found a training plan and practiced, and I got better at it.  Same with running.  Same with any kind of exercise.

It sounds so cliche, but really, if I could do it, anyone can do it.  I'm never going to win a race, I'll never stand on a podium at the end of a race.  But I'll get out there and do races, and I'll do my best and push myself, and I'll cross the finish line and get a medal.  I'm okay with never winning.  I would have never, ever, ever, never, ever, never, never, ever, never, ever imagined myself doing a triathlon.  Swimming, biking, running all in a row?!  Wait...any kind of running at all?!  No way.  But I tried one, and it was a blast, and I loved it.  And now I'm signed up to do a freakin' 70.3 race in less than five months.  Once I did a tri and liked it, I figured at some point I'd do a 70.3, but I didn't think that would be until at least 2014 if not even further out.  A friend from elementary school who has done several 70.3 and 140.6 races pretty much told me to man up and do one, that I would always put it off if I didn't just go for it.  So I did.  And now I go back and forth between thinking it's going to be awesome to wondering WTF did I sign up to do.  But like I said, I won't be on the podium, but I'll cross the finish line and get a medal and slap a freakin' 70.3 sticker on the back of my minivan and consider myself a total badass.

My friends Jen, Benah, and me at my first ever 5K.

At my last triathlon.  I normally don't look this joyful running, I was just tired of having awful running race pictures and decided to pose a little.  If only I looked this happy with less than a quarter mile to go to the finish line!