5ks to Half Marathons

I have been a runner since November 2010.

For those of you who don't know (or just want a brief refresher), my college BFF Leah and I decided to start the Couch to 5k training plan the Monday after Thanksgiving because we were sick and tired of being chunky and lazy and out of shape with the apparent inability to stick to anything else we had tried before.  The C25k plan was awesome because it was very specific with EXACTLY what to do for EXACTLY how long.  Of all the plans I had seen in magazines and such, C25k was by far the easiest to follow.  The plan is 9 weeks long and tells you to never try to finish it early, but encourages you to repeat weeks if you feel the need.  Due to the holidays and a rough week or two, Leah and I completed it in 12 weeks.  And as incentive, we signed up for the Cupid's Chase 5k 12 weeks away from when we started training.  It was so much fun to run a race and get the t-shirt that we immediately signed up for another.....and then another....and another! 

Me and Leah about to run Cupid's Chase!

Crossing our very first finish line.

In May 2011, our friend Traci asked us if we'd be interested in signing up for a half marathon that September.  We said yes.  We both completed that race, but due to a knee injury, Leah had to start several months of physical therapy and could no longer be my running partner.  But I kept on signing up for races and by January 8, 2012, I had completed 6 half marathons.

I took a break from half marathons at that point, because I was pregnant.  NOT that preggo ladies don't run half marathons and even full marathons all the time (just look at Amber Miller), but I decided that shorter runs (5ks and 10ks) were more my pregnant style. 

Right after I ran the Out Run the Police 10k at 21 weeks preggers.

I continued running until I was about 28 weeks pregnant.  At that point, my balance was off and my feet felt like sacks of sand and my sciatic nerve would twinge on me and I had to pee constantly.  So running became un-fun.  I was kind of bummed, because I had wanted to keep running until 32 weeks.  But it just wasn't in my cards.

From that point on, I did a little bit of walking and some water aerobics here and there, but I basically took the lazy road and stopped working out.  And then I started to look like this:

Chunky dunk. Ankles nonexistent.

Ok so maybe that also had to do with the fact that I was 2 weeks away from having a baby.

Time to feed the dogs and cats and try to get a little packing done for our weekend in Nashville, so I will talk about my current running plans in my next blog.....to be continued!