Fitness and Blogging Newbie!

Let me start with this... I NEVER in a million years thought that I would be a "runner."  I still don't really think of myself as a runner and I probably never will!  I played sports (basketball, volleyball, track) in high school but running was never my thing!  Yeah, yeah... I know you're thinking "you just said you ran track!"  That is true, but I was a sprinter, which meant my longest race was 400 meters (1/4 mile) and the mere thought of running even a mile was ridiculous to me.

With that being said, my husband and I wanted to start exercising early this spring and we didn't want to join a gym (yep... we're cheap!) so running was the only thing we could think of.  So in early April, we half-heartedly started running using a C25K (couch to 5k) app we downloaded for free.  We also happened to be planning a Disney World trip at the same time for early May (my husband's first visit EVER!).  As coincidence would have it, my cousin and his wife were going to be visiting WDW at the same time and they were going to be participating in the Expedition Everest Challenge and the Kids Races that weekend.  By the time we looked into it, the race was completely full but that was it... I became completely obsessed with runDisney!

I was completely obsessed with the idea of eventually participating in a runDisney event and that was the motivation I needed to jump start my running journey.  Before we even left for our trip we signed up for our first 5k (a mud/obstacle race).  Looking back, a mud run was definitely NOT a good decision for our first race!  We had never even ran 3 miles before and we tried to do 3.1 miles with about 25 obstacles along the way.  There ended up being a LOT of walking, but we did finish the race and got our first taste of race bling!

My dad, me and my husband after the finish!

After that first taste of racing, we signed up for another 5k (a very small but regular road race) a month later and vowed that we would actually train to run before that race came around.  Over that next month we ran faithfully three times a week gradually increasing our distance (we added about 1/2 a mile per week) and we got to 2.5 miles before that race and were feeling pretty confident that we could add that extra .6 miles without a problem.  The race ended up being a LOT harder than we expected (we train on city streets and on a walking track around a little league field which is VERY flat, but the race was on a cross country course that was hilly and uneven).  I ended up walking several times throughout the race and finished in about 33 minutes but since the race was so small I actually ended up being the female winner of my age division... It was such a shock and was awesome motivation to keep running even after a race I felt went pretty badly.

My dad ran with us again and he and my husband also won their age divisions...and yes, my eyes are closed in the picture :-)

So this is brings us to today... I'm still running three times a week and trying to build up my distance as the summer goes on.  I'm currently signed up for four upcoming races that I am REALLY excited about.  But you'll have to come back to find out why those races are so exciting and how I've discovered to make building distance easier! :-)

How did your running journey begin?  Any tips for us newbies?  I'm looking for all the tips I can find!