Today I am going to share how I became a runner 10 years ago at the age of 40. Next week I’ll talk about how I started this current path to my first marathon.

When I started running, it was a way to burn calories. It wasn’t a sport for me. I had never run in my life, and I started my own run/walk program before I was aware that was a “thing”.

Here is a link to Jeff Galloway’s website so you can learn more about the Run/Walk method. Googling Couch to 5K will bring up a lot of training methods that utilize that as well.

We lived near a park with a path that was roughly a mile long. I started by walking a mile, “running” a mile (which was little more that a shuffling walk) and walking a mile. I didn’t have special running shoes, I didn’t have special clothes…in fact when I started I wore a 100% cotton t-shirt!

My motivation was weight loss, since I had about 45 pounds to lose. I allowed myself 1200 calories a day, and counted those carefully, logging in everything I ate! It is still the strategy I use when I want to drop a few pounds. Every morning I enter 1200 on my phone calculator and subtract the calories for every single thing I put in my mouth.

I gave up my ice cream like coffee and started drinking it black, no more calorie-laden pop (soda) and no alcohol. I still do this Monday-Thursday! I refuse to drink calories.

Back when I started running, I didn’t think about pace or getting faster or much of anything really! I slowly worked my way up over the summer to running the whole three-mile loop. I shortened the walking by 1/4 mile, adding that into the run.

Fall came and I started looking into better clothing so I could run during the colder weather here in Buffalo. Finally I was convinced running worked for me, and I wanted to be better prepared for it.

Probably the biggest influencer in starting to become more serious about running was my husband. Once he joined me, we both started running to get better at running. We bought the right shoes, clothes, etc. and after about a year of a lot of stops and starts we decided 5 weeks before a half-marathon that we should train for one!

Searching online led us to Hal Higdon’s Novice 1  Half Marathon program, and we started in the middle of it. At the time we were running fairly close to the amount of miles per week the plan called for, so we thought we could do it.

Information is great, and the internet has been a wonderful tool for those of us who want more information on anything. The downside is with a lot of information comes a lot of missed opportunities because of fear.

I’m not advocating for stupid (been there, done that). BUT if we had researched half-marathons a bit more we probably would have been scared off from doing it. As it was, we ran the half faster than our goal and had a great time doing it!

Our kids met us at the finish, and we went for a celebratory lunch and hour-long soak in the jacuzzi. It was a great day of accomplishment.

I really believe if you listen to your body, you can do things you didn’t think you would be able to. We had been running for a while before doing the half, but I’m not sure we were what would be considered “ready” to run it. Ignorance is bliss, and sometimes just going for it makes for a great adventure!

I now look at information as a tool, but not something that should instill fear. Know your body. Trust what you know about that body, and use information to better yourself.

What is one thing you “shouldn’t” have done, based on research/information but you did it anyway?