How My Running Journey Started

Because my blog is new, I wanted to give a background on how I fell in love with running. It all started when my oldest, who's nine now was 10 months old. I'm a working mom and didn't want to leave my daughter in a gym daycare after work because I had already been away from her for the entire day. First, I had my husband burn Insanity on CD's from a friend at work and did that to begin my journey back to pre baby weight. I completed the whole program and saw some great changes in my body, but like anything else, I got bored with it. I wanted something my daughter and I could do together and had a couple of friends who jogged with their babies in jogging strollers, so I decided to give it a shot. I purchased an inexpensive stroller and started my jogging stroller journey. It was hard at first. Jogging with a baby when you had never really run at all before is HARD, but I loved the feeling I would get after a good run and knew being outside was good for my baby.

arm band ankle

trail run

jack and me

Weeks led to months and soon enough I was running 4-5 miles a few times a week with her in the jogging stroller. The awesome part was that I realized when I ran and didn't have her with me, I felt like I was flying. At that point, a couple of years later I decided to sign up for my first half-marathon. I remember following a very simple plan where you just basically run a few days a week, with all of the runs being "easy". I didn't know the difference at the time between easy and hard runs, so I just ran what I thought I wanted my pace to be during my half. My goal was to run it in 2 hours or less. Fast forward a few months and I was ready (or so I thought) for my first half. It was the Cowtown in Fort Worth, Texas in 2011 and I was pumped. I remember running strong the first few miles, but then the GI issues began. I had heard that carb-loading the night before the race was a good thing, so I ate a Chili's chicken sandwich with fries. What a BAD decision. I didn't typically eat that way, so why on earth would I think eating that way the night before a race was a good idea? Around mile 8 I had already stopped at the port-a-potty once and basically was cramping the rest of the way. At mile 11 I had to veer off course and stop in a gas station bathroom. I was hurting badly, but I was determined to finish. I finished in 2:02, which wasn't my goal time, but I knew I couldn't have done any better given my GI issues. As soon as I crossed the finish line I wanted to immediately leave. My husband had to stop at gas stations on the way home for me to continue to try and relieve the gas pains. When I got home, I slept the rest of the day and looking back I think it was due to an electrolyte imbalance, dehydration and an upset stomach. I still struggle with electrolyte replenishing today.

The way I knew I loved running was because I came back for more after that awful experience. I still loved the sense of accomplishment, I still loved the way I felt after a good, long run, and I knew I wanted to run more races. I signed up for a few other races, including another half marathon. I again didn't reach my goal time due to some heat issues that I hadn't taken into account. After that race, I didn't race again until February 2013. I suffered a pregnancy loss at 18 1/2 weeks and needed to relieve some stress and anxiety I had from that. My husband offered to run the Cowtown 10k with me only about 2 months after the loss. It wasn't any kind of PR, it was more for doing something I loved during a really difficult time.

I continued running but not racing for a few years. In fact, the next race I ran was a 10k in April of 2017. At that point I had a good friend who is on IG, (@Juliesrunninglife) who was training for a marathon and something triggered the desire to start taking my training seriously again, but we were in the middle of a move and I was having an elected surgery in June of last year, so I knew I wasn't going to be able to start training at that exact time. It wasn't until August of 2018 that I truly started training again. From there I learned a TON of information about heart rate training, which is where I am today.

Running has provided me so much gratitude, mostly for the fact that my body is healthy enough to continue running and doing what I love. I have some big goals for the future and am excited to have a new coach, Brian Lock (@roadrunner309) to help me reach towards those goals. I think having a coach offers an athlete peace of mind and direction. I know how to run and know what kinds of workouts to do when, but having someone behind you, cheering you on and offering some one on one help is comforting to me for some reason. So here's to the future! Thanks for being here and following my journey.