run, maren, run!

Now you wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows.

From that day on, if I was ever going somewhere, I was running!

Forrest Gump

Recently I ran in my first race. It was the Get Lucky 7k and it was my first time running outside. Sound crazy? Up until the race I had been a 100% treadmill girl. I started running towards the end of October so by the time I started it was too cold to run outside ... hopefully I will be able to lay some tracks outside soon. That is if it ever does warm up.

I ran the race with a couple of friends - Cara who has participated in a bunch of races and Shawn who was also running her first race. We were looking forward to a beautiful, sunny 45-degree morning which ended up being a beautiful, sunny 25-degree morning. Yikes. It was freezing. Once we were running it was okay. But waiting for that start was a killer. My goals were to run the entirety of the course and to finish between 45-50 minutes. I succeeded at both!

This was the first race of a few that I am doing this spring. I have a few 5k's and a 10k ... all to get ready for running Grandma's half marathon in June which I will be running with my marathoner sister-in-law Kate! I have a panic attack just thinking about running 13.1 miles, but there is plenty of time to train. At least that is what people tell me.

me ... shawn ... cara

The half marathon will be almost 1 year to the day of when I signed up for my gym membership ... when I couldn't have run a mile, or a block for that matter, without wanting to give up. It was my first time joining a gym and I went into it thinking it would be nothing but a waste of money. Never in a million years when I started at the gym did I think I would be at this point. No, it's not climbing Mount Everest or competing in the Iron Man. But I *believed* I couldn't do it. All I kept thinking when I was running in the race was "wow, I am really doing this!" It's a great feeling to be proud of yourself.

Up next ... Goldy's 5k with Cara!!

xoxo, the blad pad