Blogging… it’s one of those things that I’ve thought about doing a few times, but never have done it for a couple of reasons. First off, I’m lazy, it seems like a lot of work. Second, I just didn’t feel interesting enough to warrant writing a blog. I decided to take the plunge and give it a try.
My main reason for starting a blog is to journal my progress to running a half marathon. I have to ask people to donate money so I thought this might be kind of fun so if people want to; they can follow my progress. I’ll start off with some of my background and some of the things that lead up to signing up for this half marathon. I remember my sophomore year of high school when they were recruiting for the track team and cross country. I was intrigued by it, but didn’t do it, mainly because the coach was a jerk. The end of my junior year, I was in a bad car accident that landed me in a wheelchair for 7 weeks and a back brace and physical therapy my entire Sr. year and then some. I remember my first time on a treadmill in physical therapy, after several weeks of pool walking, they put me in a traction brace/lift to relieve the pressure on my spine and I walked at 1.0 miles per hour for less than 10 minutes (didn’t even make it a quarter mile) and it totally wiped me out. I think I slept for about 20 of the next 24 hours.
I’d given up on ever being a runner, I was happy to be walking at all. I remember in 2003 joining a gym and being really proud of myself when I was finally able to go 3.0 mph on the treadmill. I was happy to be walking at a “normal” pace and figured at that point, I’d never graduate to running, but I was OK with that.
In 2006, my mom’s health went downhill, pretty rapidly. In October, our lives changed pretty drastically when my mom had the first of several strokes. I’d received a promotion in January and my new job was much more intense and required a lot of hours during annual enrollment. I was working long hours and spending the rest of my time taking care of my mom. My life got more and more busy and I became a lower priority to myself and my already lagging workouts stopped and I slipped into survival mode, which included eating whatever was easy whenever I could fit it in, and sleeping about four hours of sleep a night. I gained the weight I’d previously lost back. In 2008 I decided I needed to get my own health in control and started (somewhat casually) working on my getting my weight down. In the summer of 2009, I stepped up that commitment and started working with a nutritionist (who is AMAZING, but that’s another blog altogether) and after my mom passed away in October of 2009, I stepped it up to what I call it, Nazi mode and became fanatical about going to the gym.
Around February, I started jogging on the treadmill. My first run, I ran a full mile! I’d tried to work my way up to it before, and had never even been able to run a quarter mile before, I was shocked and thrilled! I got an ear infection in March, and laid off running for awhile.
A few weeks ago, my friend Katie at work told me about the Women’s Nike Marathon in San Francisco in October. She talked me into signing up for the half marathon and join Team in Training. I’d already declared summer 2010 “The Summer O’ Wendi” and figured this was the perfect way to end “The Summer O’ Wendi” (which will be referred to as SOW going forward). The best part about this, is the funds that I’m raising to be able to go to this race goes to LLS which is the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I have to say, one of the things that I’ve really struggled with since my mom passed away is the fact that I feel SO self-centered, and I have to admit, I really hate it. I have a lot of time on my hands and I’m not doing daily service, which I was I was so used to over the past three years. I’ve really struggled with it and it makes me feel useless and incomplete. I felt like this was a perfect opportunity for me; I’m working towards a goal for myself (running) but I can also serve and help a worthy cause while I’m at it. It’s going to take me awhile to become a runner. I’ve been to two training sessions now and got my Nike+ system all set up this weekend so I can really start tracking my millage and progress. It’s a little overwhelming and I’m not at that point where running feels good yet, but it’ll get there. In my next blog, I’ll be writing a little more about LLS and how Leukemia touched people in my life and who I’m running for.
