You are doing what?!

I have always been athletic. Starting when I was a little bit of a girl, playing basketball in the Y league with boys (yelling "stop" when we wanted a shot and shooting the volleyball toward the hoop), to starting the 6th grade basketball program at my Jr. High, to playing basketball, softball, running cross country and track in high school.

Then I went to college. Is drinking a sport? If so, I was GOOD at it. Really good. And then came the weight gain that came with all that drinking/fast food eating lifestyle. I graduated, came home, started Weight Watchers and started running.

I didn't run for fun or enjoyment, I ran to lose weight. When I got engaged, I ran to be the "skinny bride" and fit in my wedding dress. Then I got married. And comfortable. And gained weight. Then I got pregnant with my son.

After I had him, I decided I didn't want to be his fat mom and started running again. The longest I ran was about 3 miles at a time. Then I got pregnant again and had my daughter.

I decided when I was pregnant that I was going on a diet as soon as I had her. I was tired of being on the larger size and wasn't feeling good about myself.

Shortly after my daughter was born in April, someone (I think my sister and her boyfriend) talked about running a half marathon in October. I think I laughed at them. I had just had a baby, she doesn't sleep through the night, I was nursing, I work full time, I commute with two kids, but in the back of my mind I thought, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Then I posted something on the mommy internet site I frequent, something along the lines of "would it be crazy if I started training for a half marathon..." Then two of my friends said they would do it with me. Awesome, I had two crazy people to train with.

And then we started training. And training. And training. We ran on zero sleep, we ran through the intense summer heat, we ran on our lunch hours, in the early morning, after the kids went to bed. We ran. And it was starting to feel good.

WHAT?! The girl who hated running cross country was actually enjoying running?!

And then we ran our first half marathon. 13.1 miles. And each one of us finished. An unbelievable accomplishment for each one of us. I ran across the finish line, holding my son and my husband's hands, crying, as my family and friends cheered me on from the sidelines.

Best feeling ever.

And so, I am doing it again. In June. And I can't wait.