It was time

Time -
Lunch time = blog time these days.
And who would have guessed that wake-up time would = run time?
The past few days have given me a lot to think about - there have been thoughts about how I spend my time, how I should spend my time, how much time I want to be on this planet...

It was time to make a positive change in my life. It was time to focus on myself. It was time to once again feel in control of what I'm doing, how I'm feeling, the way I'm living.

It was time to try to lose weight - the reasons are clear: I want to be healthy, I want to live  a long life - I do love my life. I want to be able to shop with my girlfriends in the misses or even (Gasp!) juniors section(s) of department stores. I want to be the healthiest possible version of me as we head into this uncharted (for us) IVF territory next summer.
It's really not about the half-marathon at all, besides the fact that I've been challenged, but my sisters time-ing couldn't have been better.

So. this morning, I did the unthinkable, I woke up at 6:00 AM and headed to the track. Getting dressed in the pitch black darkness of the bedroom was an adventure, I made a note to myself that in the future I WILL lay out my work-out clothes the night before. I did my best to be quiet and keep the dogs settled as Shawn remained cozily nestled in our bed.

I went to York Suburban High School which is practically in our back yard. Their track is also that wonderfully squishy turf stuff. To my surprise, there were two others at the track, a guy running and the cutest little old lady arrived about the same time as I did for her morning walk. She said "good morning", I said "it's nice to know I'm not the only crazy one out here today!" - she wasn't amused, said nothing and went about her walk. Yet another running app that I downloaded a free trial of turned out to be crap, something is wrong with the GPS feature, but it did keep a time for me, if not a distance. I switched on the Pandora quick mix and was off, again with the run one lap, walk one lap plan of attack.

My time on Monday night was 14 minutes - I didn't have an accurate timer, used the time on my cell phone as an indicator. This morning my time was 13:58, so I was somewhere under where I was Monday evening, and considering that I am not a morning person (to say the least), I felt pretty good about that.

Let me say this, however, this is not easy for me - I huff and I puff, probably mumble and groan, the entire time. I am looking forward to a time when I don't have to concentrate so hard on my breathing, etc. and can let my mind just go. I'm not as sore as I would have guessed either, which is a plus. I have some tenderness in my calves and my core/abs area - though I wasn't sure that I still had abs?! It's not easy, but it is absolutely wonderful to have support from my family and friends and this blog as an outlet for expressing my thoughts and feelings. It's very therapeutic, and now, I'm accountable. I'm accountable to my "followers" and more importantly, I'm accountable to myself.

Words of wisdom from the coach -
"Oh...meant to tell you, if you get a tattoo please make sure it says 13.1 not 13.2 lol"

 Free clothes AND a tattoo! She really knows the way to this girls heart :)