Day One

There's a chance that nobody will ever see this. (Unless I decide to post it on Facebook, which, let's be honest, is probably inevitable. Because even as much as no one cares about what I'm blogging about, there's still a chance they'll be polite enough to click on my pathetically unenticing link and hopefully, at the very least, throw out a few words of encouragement of which I will be in desperate need of throughout this journey.)

That said - I've decided to run a half marathon. Which sounds absolutely absurd coming out of my mouth. Mostly because...I don't run. I'm terrible at running - my hips start hurting after a couple of days (I'm like an 80-year-old woman) and I get horrible shin splints(both of which I'm likely to complain about). I get out of breath easily, I hate the heat, I've never been even remotely athletic (Unbeknownst to me until I didn't make the 7th grade basketball team and heartbreakingly sobbed of embarassment for hours. Years later my mother would tell me she was not all that surprised when I didn't make the team, as I was pretty much terrible in my elementary years in the "Optimist Basketball League". Optimist. Beauty in irony, right?) Needless to say, running has never been my forte'.

But I, like many others before me, put on a few pounds in my college years, and another couple since I graduated last year. And I, like many others, have told myself over and over again that "today's the day!" I'm going to start working out and eating right, and yet, somehow that keeps turning into tomorrow. And as someone with low will power, I need this goal to get me motivated and to get started in the right direction to keeping up with a healthy lifestyle. I also need this blog. So I can share with everyone what and how I'm doing...so I can be held accountable. So I can't quit. Which means, today, really is "the day." Because I've signed up for the Route 66 Half Marathon, and I've enrolled in the "Runner's World" training group, and tonight I will run my first three miles of this five-month training program, and according to the running schedule, the first of about 500 total miles by November. WHAT!?!? 500??? Couldn't I just run the 13 and call my goal complete? Kidding....

-Hayley