7.7!

I am less than a week away from my 1st ever 1/2 marathon! It's this Sunday, February 17th at 7:30am. Here's the course - http://www.breastcancermarathon.com/run/course/.

I really am looking forward to this and the challenge it has brought to me. I finally have found the internal challenge that I have missed from my swimming years. I've experienced starting rough and then getting easier, starting easy and ending rough, starting and end easy with a rough middle all through my training. The tricky part and the part that I have craved for a long time is that internal battle or pushing through that, not letting it take hold and consume the rest of your workout, even if it is at the end. I know on Sunday at some point I will lose the runners high and feel the pain somewhere in my body, I will feel myself drop off a bit on my pace but I know that I can push through - I've done it thus far at 12.5 miles what's 13.1?!

I truly never thought I could run that far. OMG to run for 2 hours straight, that's crazy and there is no way I can do that - that's what I use to say. This past Saturday I officially proved myself wrong, running 2 hours and 3 minutes for the 1st time in my life. I have never been a runner ever in my life, always a swimmer and when we had to run for cardio I bitched and complained and was always one of the slowest (still not that fast but better). I guess I finally proved to myself that just like swimming, if you train and practice you can get there.

Another amazing benefit of the running has been my body is slimming down and toning. My 4 week challenge of losing 5lbs to fit in my dress was blown out of the water - 7.7lbs in 4 weeks! I couldn't believe it when I stepped on the scale this past Sunday morning. 160.0lbs! I had to move the scale all around the bathroom and try it again because I thought maybe the floor was uneven in that spot and the scale was reading it wrong. 7 times at 160.0 (yes 7!) I finally believed it! I then went to the seamstress later that afternoon for my dress fitting and she is having to take an inch off both sides! 4 weeks ago she couldn't even grab anything on the sides! I was seriously shocked! That was more impressive to me than even the scale. I couldn't get over it. She even said I can't lose too much more because im just about maxing out the dress on being taken in without having to really alter the structure of the dress. Needless to say that cheeseburger and fried I had been craving for 4 weeks - went to Poe's Tavern and got it Sunday night! :) I thought I deserved it. haha