The Back Story

The Back Story:

I never in a million years thought I would become this passionate about running. I played softball for many (read: MANY) years and considered running to be more of a punishment than anything else. I’ve never been slender, or fast, or even remotely motivated to stay in the gym for hours on end. Put me on a softball field and I’ll be out there all day. With a real job, a serious relationship, and a city like Los Angeles BEGGING me to eat all of the good food possible (as if it’s going to disappear someday, ha), I abandoned my softball ways and entered the Big Girl World. The problem with this is that I also abandoned my competitive spirit, and that left a giant void.

Enter: running. I blindly committed to Team in Training in Fall 2008 and started training with my boyfriend’s sister for the Nike Women’s Marathon. Unfortunately, I worked retail and had wonky hours so I missed some training runs but still tried to make up the distance quickly. I know you’re shaking your head at me – and I learned my lesson – a stress fracture in my right foot. Well, I didn’t make my fundraising quota either (isn’t this a fun story?) so I wasn’t going to be able to run Nike anyway. I last minute registered B and I for the Long Beach Marathon.

I knew my foot wasn’t 100% but I truly thought I could make it all the way through. We made it to Mile 15. Embarrassingly enough a race golf cart picked us up and carted us over to a side street where we were picked up – never to see the Finish Line. MORTIFYING. To this day I think about it every time I consider running another marathon. Maybe I was weak, maybe I failed, but then I reassure myself that I know my body and I probably would have injured myself very badly if I had kept going.

SO – here we are. The here and now. I run 10k and 5k’s fairly often and I go to the gym on a regular basis. Then, I heard about Ragnar. I scrounged up a team (not a very reliable one, mind you, like a million people bailed on me before race day) and we finished all 203.5 miles in 35 hours.

HELLO? THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR ALL ALONG. I don’t know where Ragnar has been all of my life, but I wish I had known about it. Now, I won’t miss another if I can seriously help it.

All of a sudden, I’m motivated again. I want to run a Half. Hell, eff it, I want to run a Full. So I need you to keep me accountable. To read my updates and tell me if you think I’m being stupid, or stubborn. I need you to help me finish this one. I’m going to register for Long Beach again, because there’s only one way to prove that I am truly capable and that’s to go back and FINISH.

So in October, you’ll see me cross that finish line, I promise you.

Now, let’s get some new shoes.

(p.s. did I mention I’m starting Law School in the Fall? Yeah, I’ll be training AND in the first few weeks of Law School. I never said I was sane.)