Standing on my Soap Box

Well, 2013 is almost done and I feel the need to “reflect”.

At the beginning of the year I was a new runner. I was probably running for 2 minutes and walking for 1 minute. Where have I gone since then?

Well, in January I signed up for Team Diabetes, and told them I would run a half Marathon in August in Edmonton. I needed to raise $350 in order to run under the Team D banner. Well, I surpassed that goal, and I raised $1,246. In total the amount raised for team diabetes was $30,000 So therefore I raised 5% off all the money at the Edmonton Marathon, and was the third highest fund raiser. Yes!

With signing up for a half marathon I needed to train for that run, and that is what I did. I spent 3 – 4 days per week running. When you are running for 13.1 miles, you need to have some endurance.

I did finish my run. I did it in 3:33:16 – yes I run at turtle speed! Two weeks after my half marathon, I ran a 10 mile run and did that in 2:34:18. I understand that it was 3.1 miles shorter, but that means that I cut off almost 10 minutes from my half marathon time.

I have struggled since running my 10 miler in September to be consistent, but I have been running on average twice a week.

With all that running how has my body changed? Well, I have gone from 56.5 percent body fat (according to the military way of calculating body fat), to being as low as 39.9 percent body fat. I am currently sitting at 42.9% body fat. The scale has only moved about 17 pounds in total, but I have gone from shopping in a plus size store, to buying my close on the regular sized rack for most things.

I know that I have a long way to go, but hey I am farther along at this point this year, than I was last year at this time.

Well, in my last post I entered in what my past year was all about. This post will be all about my plans for 2014. So far I have three races planed. One is for January 1st – the resolution run in Winnipeg it is supposed to be a “balmy” -20 Celsius that day. It is a 5K.

Race number 2 is the Hypothermic half Marathon (yes, I know I did one last year, but now I have a time to beat!) This is schedule for the end of February. I am hoping it is a little warmer then that what they are predicting for the resolution run.

Race number 3 is scheduled to be a full marathon. Yes I said FULL. I hope that I will be able to train properly for it.

As it sits now, I am running on a treadmill. The temperatures have been way to cold for me to run outside. We will see how that goes. I like the treadmill as I can regulate my speed better than I can outside, but the scenery gets kinda stale after a while.

Once these races are done, I hope to shift my focus from only running to adding a sport or two. I am thinking I will add duathalon, and maybe take up swimming and make it a triathlon.

Seeing as my writing is supposed to be “on my soapbox”, why am I telling you all this?  I want to encourage you!  I am 100 pounds overweight according to the body mass Index. I have a Thyroid condition, and recently I was diagnosed with the beginning stages of Glaucoma.  And yet…  I am running – however slowly, but I AM running.  A year ago I was only starting out. If I can do this, SO CAN YOU