How many blogs do you think title their first blog post "first blog post?" Well, I'm not going to do that.

So how about the blog title "confessions...." ooh! Sounds intriguing, eh? Sadly, the confessions that will appear in this blog will be as vanilla as they come. But I had to hook you somehow, didn't I? And now I have you!

Confession: This could very well be my first and only post.
Truth be told, I'm great at starting things. Not so great with follow through. I hope I can continue this and be amazingly blogtastic, but time will tell.

Confession: I used to hate running. Like deeply deeply hate it.

Confession: That was a lie.
I said I hated running. I would make bold statements like "the only way I'd run is if a bear was chasing me." Honestly, I was terrified of running. I had lots of really ridiculous reasons, such as "I'm too chubby" or "my legs are too short" or "It's too hard on the body." I was afraid I'd try it and completely suck at it. But secretly, I wanted to be one of those lean, fast, impressive marathon people. Run a marathon appeared on the "list of things to do in life" (aka "bucket list" before the term "bucket list" became popular). Slowly over the years I've checked items off the list, but "run a marathon" remained.

Confession: I've registered for two 5K races and one 10K race, with the intention of training for them. (remember confession #1?)
I had the best of intentions. I even went as far as going out and buying super expensive running shoes, because I figured that would motivate me...right? That time I didn't even get around to registering for the race. In my defense, just days after I bought those shoes, the community I live in suffered a major apocalyptic-like natural disaster (sounds dramatic!). Between sandbagging, temporarily evacuating my house, and clean up from the lake in our basement (I always wanted lakefront property)- I just never got around to training for the 5K. Other training efforts were waylaid by pregnancy, laziness, or just poor follow-through.

And now, the point of all of this! After the birth of our daughter in November 2010, I decided a couple of things. 1. No more pregnancies- I want my body back! After 3 pregnancies in as many years, I was a squishier, stretchier, flabbier version of my old self. 2. It's time to bite the bullet and really give this running thing a fair shot.

So after my 8 week c-section recovery period, I started researching training programs and a race to register for. Fargo hosts a marathon every May that includes 5K, 10K, and half-marathon options as well. It was January 1st (cliche I know), and had a good amount of time to train. I went back and forth between the 10K and the half-marathon, but couldn't decide. The half marathon training program I was considering would begin on February 1st, and the first run on the schedule was 2 miles. TWO MILES. (enter FEAR).

Before I made any rash decisions, I figured I ought to start at square one. My plan was to start on the Couch to 5K program and if I was able to follow through with that through the month of January and if I was able to do 2 miles by February 1st, then I would register for the half marathon.

Can I just say, Couch to 5K (or C25K if you are a fan of abbreviations...or if you are just too lazy to type all of those extra characters) is AWESOME. It starts out really basic, which was what I needed. I downloaded the app to my iPod Touch and it would interrupt my music to inform me when it was time to walk and when it was time to run. The very first workout consisted of warm up, a 30 second run, followed by several minutes of walking. Basic.

Confession: a 30 second run was TORTURE when I started out. I swear it felt like 30 minutes.

I battled the voices in my head that told me there was no way in hell I'd be able to run a 10K, much less 13.1 miles. I was determined to actually follow through with something for once in my life.

Soon, C25K was telling me to run one minute, 5 minutes, 20 minutes at a time. And holy crap, I was able to do it.

January 31st I registered for my first half-marathon. Pretty much terrifying.

You're probably dying to know what comes next in this tale. Well, you're probably not. Regardless, this has become awfully lengthy and I have errands to run.

The purpose of this blog is pretty much to keep myself accountable to my goals, to document successes and pitfalls in training, and to do something other than stare at Facebook when I'm at a computer (admit it, you're a junkie too).

By the way, blogging is kind of scary, no?

Until next time.....