How did I get here??

Two years ago in September 2008 while going for a semi-regular walk with two good friends one of them shared that she had the urge to "take off"..."ooh on a girls weekend I asked?" "No - right now - to start running!" "What for" was all I could muster. She went on to explain that she felt she could be doing more and really felt the urge to give it a try. I had no such feelings, though our 3rd friend was intrigued. Nothing came of it and several weeks went by when I noticed a poster hanging in my gym for a new class called "Born to Run - even if you didn't think you were" . I let my friends know that they should enroll. "What about you?"..."Are you crazy - not only don't I have any desire - but zero ABILITY". They knew me well enough to challenge me - and I finally I relented.

January 2009 we showed up to the first class. Our instructor Janet brought us to the gym's track. 12 times around is a mile - I barely completed one lap.My friends made it around the lap but not much further than I. This was going to be harder than we thought! I literally could not run for 60 seconds.

Not wanting to look foolish it now became a competition in my own head to just run longer than a minute - then 2 minutes and so on. I began running every other day religiously just to keep beating my time even if it was by seconds- all in an effort to not look stupid at class each week!

A few weeks in Janet aksed if we would sign up for a 2 mile St. Patricks Day race. I thought she was INSANE! I hadn't even run half a mile yet and it was the hardest physical challenge I'd done since high school. That said - we all signed up! It seemed truly insurmountable.

I did the work - every other day regularly - slow and steady - - and race day arrived. We were all very nervous and had serious doubts we could complete the race. Janet was there to cheer us on. The bullhorn went off and hundreds joined us in our first ever race. What a RUSH! We were beyond proud of ourselves just for being there - it was so far outside ourselves we couldn't help but laugh half the time - one foot in front of the next we did it. I didn't walk at all - completed it fair and square and Janet joined me for my last 1/2 mile which was invaluable. It was an incredible adreneline high - it was like nothing I had ever accomplished before and it felt GREAT. I was hooked!

Here I am beaming and with my teammates and Janet our coach.