I went for a great 2hr run today in Vancouver with my
SAA buddies. The great part of the
SAA is that we are pretty tight group and come from a variety of backgrounds. Today, I had the pleasure of running today with 2 different members that I had never run with before. On a 2hr run, you can certainly learn a lot about someone. During this run, we were recounting our running history, what motivates us and why we are doing
IMC2009. This made me think that I have never talked about this on my posts. So...here it goes.
In 1996 my husband gave me a copy of Oprah book with Bob Greene called Making the Connection. I read this book in about two days and found it motivated me to get in shape again. My weight has never been an issue but in 1996 I had not really workout since
high school when I swam with a local swim club. (For the record, my nick name has always been 'solo sport', I have NEVER been competed in team sports).
I started with the Sun Run training program and slowly worked my way up to 10
kms. On the day of the Sun Run, I had actually only ever run 6
kms but I was sure the adrenaline of the day would pull me through. I was right, the excitement and the 45,000 people running the race got me through. However, I was unable to walk for the next 5 days. Still, I was motivated to continue entering 5km and 10km runs.
This continued on until I became pregnant in 1998. Feeling really tired from the pregnancy, I stopped running or working out at all. This resulted in a beautiful healthy 7lb 3oz baby boy in May 1999 AND a left me 30lbs over my
pre-pregnancy weight. I had gained 52lbs in total during my pregnancy.
Now I was officially overweight and need to start exercising again to get the weight off. My local community centre had child minding so I took my newborn son there every Mon/Wed/Fri from about 3 weeks after birth and on. When my son was exactly 5 weeks old I ran/walked a 5km fun run while my
thighs rubbed together as I ran.
This continued for a few months and the weight came off I started running more. I enjoyed the time to myself also. As a new mother, it was an opportunity for me to do something for myself without my new baby attached to me. (nursing mothers will know exactly what I mean by this).
Around September 1999 I was introduced to a woman in my area who organized a 1/2 Marathon and Marathon clinic that was starting in October. The goal races were the Pacific Road Runners First Half and the Vancouver Half . I figured, I had been through 12 hours of drug free natural child birth earlier that year so running a 1/2 marathon could not be that hard. I joined the clinic and the rest is history. February 2000 I ran my first 1/2 Marathon and then another one in May 2000. I then trained with the group again the next year and ran my first Marathon in May 2001 in Vancouver. That was also the same year I turned 30. Since then, I have run 6 marathons, about the same number of 1/2 Marathons.
I decided to make the transition to triathlon in 2003. This year, my running partner and good friend was starting a family herself and was no longer able to run. I figured this was a great
opportunity to try triathlon. I had been interested in doing a triathlon but was a bit afraid of the whole bike thing. Most people are concerned about the swim, but not me. Speed is not my thing so the thought of a road bike was
scary.
So I joined a triathlon clinic and learned from the best. Started out on my Brodie mountain bike in 2004 doing the
UBC sprint triathlon. It poured rain and was very cold but I was hooked! Since then, I have done numerous sprints, a few Olympics and one 70.3 (Half
Ironman).
Now I am setting my sights on
Ironman Canada 2009. I hope you will find my blog
interesting and maybe even helpful with your fitness goals or
Iromman dreams.
Happy training!
I have mentioned my obsession with podcasts before in my blog, so when I was invited to be the first guest on the Kelownagurl Tris podcast I was beside myself. OK, I did offer to be her guest if she started the podcast, she didn't exactly call me out of the blue.
