Daily Loaf

After reading fellow CL contributor Beth’s inspirational post about her running journey last week I thought it best to continue this baring of the soul and expand upon my own running journey. What better way for our readers to understand our obsession with running than to share a little piece of ourselves with you?

That story starts in Feb. 2008 with an insomnia driven, hyper-active redhead that just got dumped. Yep, there’s nothing quite like a good old fashioned dump fest to get a girl down. I was a drunk emotional wreck as yet another opportunity of “happily ever after” slipped through my fingers. I realized quickly that I needed to find an outlet for my emotions, bottled up energy and sexual frustration lest my friends disown me, so I started running again. I’ve always run, here and there, to get some cardio in, to help me sleep a little better but this time was different. This time I put a little more into it.

By July, I was starting to eye an upcoming 5K race and committed to the July 4th Watermelon 5K that Track Shack in Orlando puts on every year. With no real training other than a few runs a week and absolutely zero knowledge of how far/fast I was going, I hit Mead Gardens for my first 5K. Thirty some odd minutes later I huffed and puffed my way through the finish-line on the verge of puking my guts out — but I was exhilarated. I just ran a 5K. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not sure why I didn’t object when my husband boldly posted a training schedule on our refrigerator and announced that we were going to do a half-marathon.  I was in the midst of my unemployment stint and deeply distressed.  Either he believed that a goal would alleviate some of my misery or he was not-so-subtly recommending that I drop a few pounds.  Regardless of his motivation, I agreed, and the next Monday we drove down to Bayshore to begin our training. Read the rest of this entry »