Did I tell you...?!

Did I tell you I'm training for my very first marathon?!

I'M TRAINING FOR MY VERY FIRST MARATHON.

I feel very excited and very much like a psycho.

I entered into running pretty reluctantly.  When I was young I played soccer and softball and I danced and did aerobics videos with my mom.  But when I got to college, all of that was gone and what was left was a gym with a treadmill.  So I got on it, and that's how I got my start.

I remember when my best friend asked me if I wanted to run a 5K with her my senior year of college.  

I thought she was a lunatic.

I legitimately trained for that run.  And listen, I KNOW how hard it is to run 3 miles when you have never run or you are not a runner.  That's why I'm telling you... I trained for that run, less than 8 years ago.  It was painful.  I thought I was running forever.  When we finished the run, I thought I was such a badass.

Less than a year later, I got this crazy idea that I should try running Broad Street, the largest 10 miler in the country.  I don't know what I was thinking, except that I could do it.

And I did it.  I remember finishing that 10 miles and thinking, "I have no desire to run a half marathon.  What psycho would run 3 more miles?"

Two and a half years later, I was that psycho.

And as I ran from mile 12 to mile 13.1, I remember thinking, "I will ABSOLUTELY do this again."

I signed up for two more half marathons (with the possibility of a marathon in the back of my brain), and with that, most definitely jinxed myself.  In January of 2014, just six weeks after my first half, a piercing pain in my knee sidelined me.  It took four months, two MRIs, PT, a knee brace, a cortisone shot, and three doctors to diagnose my mysterious injury:  Synovial Plica Syndrome.  On June 18, 2014, I had arthroscopic knee surgery and on June 19th, I signed up to be a Beachbody coach.  That day they introduced a new program called PiYo, that promised to be low-impact, especially for knees, but high-intensity.  My thought was, "Well, I won't be able to do anything else, I suppose I can do a little yoga."  You guys know my story.  PiYo taught me that I don't have to run to feel strong, healthy, and in shape.

But, four and a half months after my surgery, I ran a 10K race, and less than a year after surgery, I was reunited with my true love, the Broad Street 10 Miler.  That race sealed my fate.  I was all in, and a week later, I signed up for the Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon in Philadelphia on October 31 and the Rock'n'Roll Marathon in Phoenix, Arizona on January 17.

I truly believe things happen for a reason.  I have seen so many things happen in my life that, at the time, felt like the end of the world, but in the end turned into a lesson or a blessing of some kind.  Being able to run this marathon means more to me now than it ever would have before, had I not gotten through the surgery, become a coach, and discovered PiYo.  Of course, there is a little voice inside of me wondering if I could beat my last half marathon time of 2:08, but I keep reminding myself, that's not what THIS half marathon is about.  This half marathon is just one more triumphant return to running; another distance my healed knee was able to carry me, the halfway point to my marathon, the ultimate goal.

In the next few days, I will post my marathon training calendar, along with how I came up with it!  Thank you for all your support and for sticking with me through this!