Six weeks ago I received a text from my brother. He asked if I might want to run a half marathon with him. My very first instinct was YES! Then I remembered that I do not run. I just had my fourth child five months before that. I had to think about the question, the consequences, the training, the time, and everything else before I answered. It didn't take long for me to say that I would, in fact, run this half marathon.

Being the studious librarian that I am, I did research on novice runners, novice runners running half marathons, training, training schedules, what to eat, what not to eat. I downloaded apps on my iphone. I checked out a marathon training book. I am not five weeks into my training. I am doing it. I am learning a lot along the way because while I plan to run this with my brother, we live three hours apart. I have no training buddy, and to be honest, only my husband and children know I have signed up to run the half marathon. I have not told a lot of people because I am afraid of failure. I am afraid I will let others down.

I started my training by going to purchase a new pair of shoes at a specialized running store so I could get something that would be good for my big, out of shape body.  I'm 5'9" and weigh a sloppy 175 on a good day.  I use the word "sloppy" because as I mentioned, I have given birth to four kids in the past seven years. My body is softer than I would like it to be. I also bought some day-glo shirts because I run on county roads, and I do not want to get hit by a car in the evening.

I started running/walking 3 - 4 times a week on May 1.  I went down the road to the first stop sign and back for a total of 1.26 miles. The first outing I returned with a purple face. My knees hurt. My muscles hurt. I wanted to cry. (To date, I have not cried, although I have wanted to many times.) My biggest pain during the first month was runner's knee. Naturally, I did research on how to strengthen my quads to cure the pain. I bought better insoles for my shoes. I iced my knees after every run. I continue to do quad exercises every day. For the past two weeks, my knees have been pain-free.

By the fourth week of this running/walking, I was beginning to get very frustrated. I could not make it to the stop sign (.6 mile) without stopping to walk.  I started analyzing the data on my app. I know that I want to complete the half marathon around 3 to 3.5 hours. This means my goal is to run a 13 minute mile. After looking at some of my paces, I was running an 8.46 mile then having to stop and walk.

Now in my fifth week, and the month of June, I have added another mile to the route. The first outing I was scared, but I now had the knowledge to run slower. I was amazed at my stamina, and I actually made it a full mile of running before stopping to walk. I was so proud of myself that I had to wake up the kids to share my news.

I'm excited to continue this journey. At the insistence of my brother, I took some "before" pics of myself because I am hoping to also get into shape. So far, I am not seeing the results I would like to see, but I have learned something else about my body. I hated my post-baby body. Before my fourth child, I had dropped 30 pounds, and I was finally comfortable. I've really been struggling after the last baby. BUT I am learning to love my body - not for how it looks, or how it could look - but for what it can do. Each time I return from a workout I fall in love with my body a little more because of how hard it is working and achieving. I do still cross my fingers each week for a lower number on the scale. When I start to see actual results then maybe I'll be brave enough to start posting some pictures of me.

I hope you will continue to follow me on this journey, and I hope you will share words of wisdom if you have had the same experiences and have achieved your goals.