Hello Hal!

In 2008, a year after Finny was born I decided to run a 1/2 marathon...which made no sense because I was not a runner...I was the kid who skipped school on the day we ran the mile for the Presidential Fitness Challenge...looking back on my decision to run that 1/2 marathon I think it was fueled mainly by my desire to get back in shape after having 2 babies pretty close together and to challenge myself (because Husband totally chuckled at the idea when I mentioned it to him).  The really cool part of the entire experience is my mom did it with me...and that was awesome...she's so kick ass! 

 

Anywhoo's...in order to prepare for the 1/2 marathon I enlisted the help of my trusty friend Google and found Hal Higdon's web page of running plans.  I printed off the novice 1/2 marathon (nothing lower than novice existed despite the fact that I was about 5 pegs below novice) and we set out running to the plan.  In November we ran the 1/2 marathon and it was amazing!  My goal was to finish without walking and I did it! 

 

After that I did a few more runs, a couple sprint triathlons, etc. and then I hung up the old work out gear and returned to my favorite past time of drinking wine and reading People magazine...dabbbling in exercise now and then...

 

Until this past week when I was feeling so stressed out and uptight about work that even hilarious text messages from my gal pal's wasn't making me smile...the new season of RHOBH didn't even spark a tiny fire of joy in me...and I decided I needed to do something for myself to make me feel better.  So back to old Hal I went, printed off the 1/2 marathon training guide and began running. 

 

I'm already feeling a lot happier, I'm sleeping better, I have more energy, and I'm relaxed.  I've been looking at runs but the weather gets pretty bad around here soon and there aren't a lot of options.  I'm going to enlist the help of my super SIL and have a two person 10k Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning...as for the 1/2 marathon, I have a small idea of what run I'm going to do early next year but in the mean time I'm just glad I'm doing something that makes me feel a bit more balanced...because it's only Nov. and mama's losing her marbles.