I have never been an athlete. In high school, I was the girl who failed the physical fitness test, because I got beat in the mile by the smokers. I dreaded gym class, and avoided anything that would make me sweat. Which is why, by the age of 26, I found myself at ~210 pounds. On a girl barely 5'4", that is not a good look.
Shortly after this picture, I moved to Seattle. One day, I was walking up a moderate hill with a classmate to go to lunch. By the time we got to the top, I was profusely sweating, had shin splints, and was gasping for breath. That was my 'aha' moment, where I knew things had to change.
I lost some weight by eating less, and then I gingerly started biking. I'd carted my old mountain bike between 3 states, even though I hadn't ridden it since 1997, and it was deflated and rusting on my balcony. Not as auspicious start, but Seattle is so bike-friendly, that I started regularly biking to work, even though the 4 miles uphill to home sometimes I thought would kill me, my heart rate was so high!
As I rode on the bike path, I would pass all the runners and wonder how they could ever do that. I have never had any desire to run; I couldn't understand why anyone would want to, or how they physically could do it. I pitied them, how slow they were in comparison to my bike.
But then, after losing about 20 pounds, I plateaued. I have a condition that makes it hard to lose weight, and what I was doing was no longer enough. I decided to do the impossible, and try to run a little. It was awful! I thought I was going to pass out, or my lungs would explode.
Eventually though, I got the hang of it, and a few months later in 2007, I decided to enter my first 5K race. I was barely up to running a 5K, so I just wanted to finish it (and not puke at the finish line). I did finish, in a little over 30 minutes, and I thought I was hooked. But finishing up my thesis and moving cross country had me putting running on the back burner, and I stopped for almost a year.
Fast forward to my living in Boston in 2009. I work basically alone, and I knew pretty much no one in the city. In an attempt to meet people, I joined a few running clubs, and a triathlon team. I still don't know what possessed me to do that, as I hadn't swum in over 10 years, I only owned my old mountain bike, and I could barely run that 5K still.
But I bought a road bike and a wetsuit, got my butt in the pool, and figured out how to shift the bike. In May 2009 I completed my first triathlon, a sprint. Somehow by the end of the season, I ended up completing a half Ironman, Timberman. It wasn't fast (6:22), but considering where I came from, I was proud of it. And I got to cross the finish line with my friend and training partner, who had caught up to me with 2 miles left.
I went a little off the deep end after the season ended. I switched teams, to one that is filled with really talented athletes. I also had shoulder surgery. I was so freaked out that I would gain all my weight back and would never live up to the bar set by my teammates, that I signed up for 2 half ironman races as motivation. The first, in early June, did not go so well, and I finished in 6:30. The second is in a couple of weeks, and it will take a perfect day for me to get under 6 hours, which I set as my goal as soon as I finished the race last year.
But somehow, when a group of my friends/teammates decided to sign up for Ironman Germany, I jumped on the bandwagon. I am petrified. And after watching my teammates rock IMLP last weekend, am really worried about my ability to complete this race.
So, I started this blog to carry me through the trip from Boston to Germany. Maybe get some feedback, advice, and/or heckling from others. I still have a little ways to go with my weight loss, and I'm hoping to focus on that this winter.
But for now, gotta head out for a run!
Awesome Carrie! I didn't know this about you. I'm going to link your blog to mine:)
ReplyDeleteWOW! Carrie, I too had NO idea about your journey. You are an inspiration. I am so impressed and proud to be your teammate. Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a moving story Carrie, I am so impressed! An incredibly brave undertaking all around and I will be there at Timberman to cheer you on.
ReplyDeleteCarrie - your story is so inspiring. You have so much courage! Wow!!! You go girl!!!
ReplyDeleteI loved the blog...until I saw the countdown for the Mohawk-Hudson Marathon. If we could just push it off 1 more month. :)
ReplyDeleteThis brought tears to my eyes Carrie - I think so many people will identify with your struggles and I am truly impressed with your ability to talk so openly and honestly - looking forward to following your journey and very proud to have you on BTT!
ReplyDeleteIt's always interesting to see what caused people to start running. For me, it was some of the same issues. I was kind of burnt out from playing competitive sports in high school and sort of just stopped doing cardio consistently for several years. I exercised but mainly it was just weightlifting and eating. Then I had a short stretch where I wasn't even weightlifting. I don't think I ever had a specific "aha!" moment but after a while I wasn't quite happy with my body and started to build the resolve to do something about my fitness. It helped when I moved back to Massachusetts and had all these races around that I remembered from my teenage years. I picked a 5 mile race and started training for it about a month before the race. When I first started training, I had trouble running 8 1/2 minute miles for five miles. It was hard at first. Eventually the goal became to break 20:00 for a 5K. But I ran for maybe almost 10 months before I was able to do that. The thing is once I did it a positive feedback loop kind of started. Running got easier and I trained more and I dropped down to 19:00 and then 18:00 almost in weeks not months....and then eventually under 17:00 a few months later. It seems like starting something is the hardest part. The second hardest part is to keep going once you've plateaued or have had a set back. If I don't improve or have a set back, I can kind of get around that problem now by thinking that the set back could still be more severe than if I did nothing.
ReplyDeleteI relate to the grad. school thing of putting running on the back burner. The difference is maybe that by the time I had gotten to grad. school I had already exceeded some of my wildest initial dreams as a runner so the challenge became balancing it with the rest of my life. These days, I try to still run somewhat competitively but I run a more moderate mileage and can somewhat graciously accept that there will be probably be no p.r's for a while (if ever again.) Finishing a thesis takes work. And again, since starting is often the hardest part, starting a thesis is hard too. These days I seem to be making a bit more headway on that, which actually means more to me right now than running X7:XX vs X9:XX in some race.
Everyone's journey seems to be shaped by what they desire, what they can do, and what chances they are willing to take. I think a lot of runners are very similar in all three of those aspects and, if that's so, you are as much a runner as anyone.