I'm a Runner

Well, I think I can finally admit it. I'm a runner. I honestly thought I would never have those words come out of my mouth. But now after I have done two 5Ks and my first 10K, I can honestly say I am a runner and I enjoy running with friends.

Make sure you notice the key words there "with friends". I still do not like running by myself very much, which is why I love to run at the gym with my friend Jennifer. We can run at whatever pace suits us and we are always by each other and talking. It's a social thing for me. I'm a social runner.

So, when it's time for me to run outside with a friend I choose to slow down my pace and they choose to push themselves so that I am not slowing too much.

This past Saturday I ran my first 10K. Earlier in the week I was starting to doubt if it would happen since they were predicting severe thunderstorms and hail on Saturday (we pretty much got nothing but a little rain on Saturday night.)

I ran the entire course with my running partner. I just wanted to enjoy myself and hang out and finish. I wasn't looking to PR or kick someone's butt.

So, what's next for me. Well, my daughter and I are going to run a 1K next month (there is a 5K there as well, but she won't be able to do that and we ran it last year when it was a 1mi rather than a 1K together, so it's our race, maybe some day we'll run the 5K together.) After that I am running a 5K that the proceeds benefits buying new playground at my daughter's school.

I am not sure what is after April (both those are in April yet). I have not decided if I will do an area 5K in May or not because I am doing a Women in the Outdoors weekend later in the month and that kinda takes up a chunk of my budget for recreational stuff.

Right now I am currently working on convincing my running partner to do the Warrior Dash with me in July. That race is 3 miles long with 11 obstacles. It looks challenging and fun!

And in August I am thinking I will do the 4-mile run for our County Fair. I am toying with the idea of adding in a 10K in October.

I find it helps that I have a fitness challenge/race to make. Starting next week, we are changing up our routine which was to meet twice a week and run, run, run. (I also ran 3 miles once a week on my own, did yoga once a week, and have been adding in Zumba every other week.) So, now we are planning to work on increasing our 5K speed so that we can PR in a later race and add in weights to start working on strength and intonation.

This is a picture of me with my running partner/friend Jennifer and our friends (another) Jennifer and Stephanie. The other Jennifer & Stephanie are running partners too and ran the entire race together. We came in right behind them.

I started running 9 months ago with a group of us doing a C25K program with a trainer. Anyways, I took measurements 9 months ago when we started running ( & was still nursing my son.)

After 3 months (ended nursing right after this):
1/4" loss on chest
1/2" loss on waist
1/4" loss on hips
no weight loss

After 6 month (no longer nursing, so I account for some chest loss because of this):
3/4" loss on chest (1" total)
1/2" loss on wasit (1" total)
1/4" loss on hips (1/2" total)
no weight loss (nothing total)

After 9 months
1" loss on chest (2" total)
1.5" loss on waist (2.5" total)
1/4" loss on hips (3/4" total)
6.5 pounds weight loss (6.5 total, just in last 3 months)

Also, I did not change my eating at all. I eat and drink whatever I want. So, ramping up to the longer workouts of an hour really helped. I much prefer to excercise for an hour with friends and do stuff with the kids and eat whatever I want.

Well, guess we'll see what the next 3 months brings.