Beginnings

Welcome to my little piece of cyber-space.

I've never written a blog for the world to see before. I've been a member of an online health/fitness website since 2006 where I would occasionally blog but it was a close knit community of people with similar goals and motivation to change their lives. Blogging on google feels strangely different, but I decided to make the leap. I recently watched Julie and Julia, while not the greatest movie, I was connected to the main character's desire to pursue her goal and fervently blog about it- even if no one was there to read it. I've also been obsessed with other bloggers rambling, particularly those who are striving for a unique level of fitness. We may never meet, but some days I find myself wondering "what has Katie been up to lately?" Runsforcookies, here is my little shout out to you! So here I am getting ready to invite you into my life. You'll have to bear with me, I have no intention of spending hours of my day editing this blog; it’s going to be real, and raw, spelling errors, run-on sentences and all. I hope you keep reading anyway.

I grew up slightly overweight. I remember being 190 lbs in 9th grade. I cried before soccer practice, dreading running what the coach referred to as "The Box." Ever heard of it? It's a terribly simple and demeaning way to humiliate an out of shape teenage girl. We, the soccer team, would run in a square out on the field and if you got tired and couldn't go on you would simply stand in the middle so that the other girls could run around you and make you feel like a total fatass. Fun huh?! I quit soccer, started skipping P.E class and therefore became even more um…soft. It’s amazing how many times in life we feel sorry for ourselves and then our actions actually continue taking us the opposite direction of where we really want to end up. It should be really simple, live like the person you want to be….if only it were actually that easy to change.

 

But I did it! Well started to change at least. Early 2007 I decided I didn’t want to look in the mirror and always despise what I was seeing. I would sweat my ass off wearing a jacket in the summer because I thought it would hide the fact that I was fat- wrong! Everyone just probably thought I was fat AND crazy. For me to detail all the changes I’ve made over the past few years would take more time that I have on my lunch break but I’m always willing to answer questions. I will tell you that I didn’t turn to any fad diets, just eating right and exercising like crazy. I learned to love the exercise, and then I became obsessed with exercise- not in a negative way- just in a I’d rather be running all day long than have a job type of obsession- eh, but what are you going to do. So I sit here at work, on a lunch break, writing this blog and not running. Don’t be mistaken though, while I will probably ramble about a lot of things, it’ll probably always come back to running <3

I lost 94 lbs- I sit about 85 lbs down from my highest weight right now- life happens. I’m trying to hit 100 lbs weight lost! Since 2007 I’ve run 17 races; broken down that is 10 5k’s (3 were mud runs), 1 10k, 4 Half Marathons, and 1 Ragnar Relay, which is in a field of its own J  As 2012 wraps up I’m confident that 2013 will be my year. I’m captaining a new Ragnar team, planning on signing up for a few more half marathons and drumroll please….I am running my first ever FULL marathon! I signed up for the Eugene 2013 Marathon in April so you are sure to be given detailed descriptions of all my training highs and lows.

Stick around. It might be comical to watch me balance this with motherhood (2 perfect little girls), being a wife, working full time, part time lia sophia lady, training, wanting to go back to college to earn a second degree, oh and did I mention I would love to become a spin instructor? Grab the popcorn (air popped please.)