The Beginning

Everytime someone finds out I am a runner, they want to know why in the world I would subject my body to such treatment! "What made you decide to run?", is the first thing people think, as though it is simply crazy to even contemplate running without a mugger on your tail. The truth always surprises them, too. I have a tendancy to be quite blunt with my honesty, so I simply tell them I am lazy and cheap.

I knew, without having to look in the mirror for verification, that I was over weight. I had been for years. Not drastically over weight, but that middle-age, comfort zone of tweny pounds over weight that a lot of us visit and never leave. I put the weight on years ago when I was going through a divorce and just never did anything to change the situation. I went out and bought new clothes in larger sizes and went about life a little less confident and a lot more unhealthy. I rationalized my weight as being okay because I was not finished having children yet. In my mind, why bother losing the weight to just put it back on again when I was pregnant? I know. My logic had more than a few flaws.

That brings me to June 2010. After ten years of being over weight, I had run out of excuses. I had my last baby in September 2009 and have no plans for any more children. I stopped nursing him at the beginning of May this year, so I couldn't blame the extra pounds on that anymore. I honestly could not come up with any good reason why I should still be out of shape and heavy. And in the back of my mind was that internal little pain in the ass voice reminding me I had said for years I would get back in shape after I was finished having kids.
So the decision was made. As I sat on my couch eating Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (not kidding), I contemplated the various methods to get me on the path to a bikini body. (Here's where we get to me being lazy and cheap.)

The first, most obvious option was to join a gym. I am a huge fan (no pun intended) of "The Biggest Loser", so it was only natural to think about getting my own version of Bob or Gillian. But I've been there and done that before. About five years ago, in fact. Do you want to know how many pounds I lost in three months with a trainer? Five. I figure I paid about $40 per pound. That adds up to ridiculous in my account books. Clearly something about the whole gym experience did not mesh with me. Besides, I knew without a doubt that I would not stick to any exercise plan that had me driving across town to get to a gym. The logistics of managing schedules for four kids and two adults in our house plus an exercise schedule at a gym seemed completely overwhelming. Decision made: No gym.

My husband bought an Elliptical exercise machine a couple of years ago. He was so excited about his new toy, I did not have the heart to tell him I hate working out on machines. There is just something so futile about doing all of that work and not getting anywhere! I did not bother to get on it even one time until this summer. I decided the Elliptical could serve as a back-up plan, but there was no way I wanted a machine to be my main choice for exercise.
If gyms and machines were out for me, that left biking, swimming, walking or running. Biking did not seem practical to me. I live in Lubbock and one drive through this city will show you that the roads were not made with cyclists in mind. Very few have lanes devoted to cycling traffic. We live out of the city limits off a highway that does have shoulders, but cars frequently drift over the shoulder stripes. Dangers aside, have you priced good bicycles lately? They are outrageously expensive. Add in all of the necessary gear and you have a high priced sport. Swimming was an option, but I had very good reasons not to swim as my main exercise. To begin with, we do not have a pool at our home, but there is a great pool in our neighborhood that I take the kids to all the time. It is rarely crowded when we go and there is a lap pool seperate from the main recreational pool. Watching the children is the main problem. My boys were ages 13, 4, 3 and 10 months this summer. None of the three little ones could swim so I have to supervise them at all times when they are near the pools. I could not take time for myself at the pool and leave them alone at home, either. Even if I could, I would still have to join a gym to swim when the pools closed at the end of the season. Swimming was out.

I was left with walking and running. I was walking regularly with the family already and my weight certainly wasn't being affected positively. Therefore, running was my only option left. It was also the only option that really appealed to me. I like the feeling of power and control I get from running. It is a relatively cheap sport to begin, too. A pair of shoes is really all you need to get going. After realizing this, I decided there was never going to be a better time than right at that moment to get out there and get started. I had no idea that first run was going to become the beginning of a new obsession.