How do you keeping going?

I had quite the busy weekend. I was constantly going on saturday and with 2 girls who decided it wasn't fun to sleep more than an hour or so at a time I was absolutely exhausted when sunday finally came. I had to take that day to just rest and sleep. I definitely needed it.

Friday was a really big day for me. The Husband and I are gearing up for our half marathon in just a couple weeks. The Husband has run a half marathon before and he's also one of those people that can not run for weeks or months and then just go bust out 7 miles. He sucks is awesome. :) So we are doing the Provo Half Marathon and awesomely enough the first 8 miles or so of the course are coming DOWN the Provo canyon. That means lots of pounding on those knees and shins. So we've been doing a canyon run once a week to prepare our legs for what will be the torturous beginning of our race. We decided this week to combine our canyon run with our long run for the week. We ran 9 miles. 4.5 down the canyon and 4.5 on semi-flat road back to the car.

Whenever I go on a run there is always a voice in my head for the first 3-4 miles telling me that I'm not going to be able to go much further. Something tries to convince me that my legs hurt, or I can't breathe, or I just can't do it. About that time that my brain just shuts up I finally break through that wall of being able to just run and not have to think about it. Somehow it turns into autopilot and I honestly think I could keep going as long as my body didn't completely rebel against me. This run was no different. Those 4.5 miles down the canyon weren't awesome. Mostly because the downhill just SUCKS. My knees were begging me to just find flat road or run backwards or SOMETHING! And that is exactly why we're training for those downhill miles in the half. But after we finally got out of the canyon it was just a smooth ride from there.

At about mile 5.5 we ate our Gu. Gu is a thick, sticky, energy shot that is supposed to help your body keep energy up and have something to burn. I can honestly say it helps me quite a bit. I ate Chocolate Outrage flavor. It was tasty :)

About mile 7 I started to think about how amazing it is that I can even run 1 mile let alone 7, 8 and 9! Up until that run 7 miles was the furthest I had ever run at one time and that 7 was only the week before! 10 months ago I hadn't ever even run 1 mile without stopping and even then it was a 12-13 minute mile. I can't believe how far I've come and as I told The Husband that he told me how proud he is of me. He is more than supportive and has been throughout this entire journey but its so nice to hear that he's proud of me.



I felt so great when we finished. I have been sore the past couple of days but it hurts so good!

On saturday I was judging for the High School State Drama competition and got to talk with a girl about my weight loss. She asked me how I keep going. At the time I told her I honestly didn't know. There have been many weeks where I didn't lose weight or I gained weight when I could've just given up and stopped without reaching my goal but for some reason I didn't. There is something different about this time that isn't letting me give up. Now after thinking about it further I've decided the reason I don't give up is because of experiences like running those 9 miles. Because of all the weight I've lost I am capable of things I never thought I would be able to do. Because I have reached smaller goals such as running a 5k and losing 20 lbs, I KNOW I can reach my big goals of being 150 lbs, wearing size 8 jeans and running a half marathon. Each one of those milestones along the way makes a difference for me not only in my physical abilities but in my confidence. I KNOW I can do it. So I'm not giving up no matter how many bad days, weeks, months I have. This is going to happen no matter how long it takes.

Why do you keep going? What motivates you?