I started this blog to help motivate me, through possible public humiliation, to continue with my weight loss goals and in my training for the Nike Woman's Marathon this October. I intend to chronicle my experience to the seemingly impossible 26.2 mile run.
My goal for the marathon is two-fold:
1. To run the entire 26.2 mile course. No matter how slow!
2. Not die
To understand my journey, I guess you must know a little about where I am coming from. I am a recovering addict with 16 years clean and sober. I spent years in my disease on a couch, loaded, waiting to die. Sounds a little melodramatic, even to me, but that is how it was. I was also a two pack a day smoker until 13 years ago. In addition, I have always carried around at least 25 extra pounds and once vehemently defended the underappreciated virtues of Pop Tarts as a dinner entrée.
Even after I got clean and quit smoking, I found work and school to focus on. In true addictive-personality style, work and school were ALL I did. I moved from one couch to another. I would come home from work and crash in front of the TV exhausted from a 14,16, or even 18 hour day. When my boyfriend (now husband) would nag at me about my sedentary lifestyle I would exclaim “I am too tired to exercise”, “I don’t have time to exercise”, or my favorite passive-aggressive tactic, “Boy, it would be nice to have all the extra time you do to go to the gym.”
To make a long story a little shorter, I got sick and didn’t want my final epitaph to read, “She didn’t have any hobbies or outside interests, but boy, that girl could work!” I needed to find something to do and I had played sports in high school, but that was 18 years ago! I hadn’t done ANYTHING since. So I decided that the most realistic goal was a triathlon.
Yup, in my infinite, Pop Tart eating wisdom, I decided to do a triathlon. Thank God for the people at Team in Training or I would have surely drown in the ocean swim, been run down by real cyclists on the bike course, or had a heart attack on the run course. Thanks to their training and guidance, I completed my first Olympic distance triathlon (0.9 mi swim, 24.6 mi bike, and 6.2 mi run) in September, 2005. I have since done another Olympic distance triathlon and one half marathon (13.1 mi.)
Now I want to complete the ultimate event on my “Stacey’s Dream World Goal List”: a full marathon. I also want to drop those 25 pounds that have haunted me since high school. (Mostly because I don’t want to drag anymore ‘stacey’ along the 26.2 mile course than I absolutely have to!) To help me accomplish these goals I have enlisted the help of two important groups: Team in Training and Jenny Craig!
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