After I had Madison I didn't try to lose baby weight until about 8 months after she was born and at that point I already had bad habits and they were really hard to break, I said to myself I won't let that happen again! I started walking a few days after Beth was born with a specific goal in mind - complete the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February 2015 - w weeks before Beth turns 1. I was giving myself 50 weeks from when she was born to prepare for this race.
Over the next few days I am going to be sharing my experiences over the past year from the decision to run The Glass Slipper Challenge to crossing the finish line!
Picking A Race
I had the support of my family and both Chris and my parents suggested I complete the Glass Slipper Challenege (a 10k and a half marathon back to back). I was thinking "are you crazy 19.3 miles between 2 days?!". I took a few days and decided I would do it!, and I would do it for a charity!
Picking a charity was kind of tough, there are so many amazing charities that work with runDisney. I room some time to read all the different mission statements and settled on Noah's Light Foundation. If you haven't checked it out yet please visit my fundraising page there is a few days left to donate and help me reach my goal.
https://www.noahslightfoundation.org/donate/index.php/component/civicrm/?task=civicrm%2Fpcp%2Finfo&reset=1&id=426
Running for such a great charity helped give me the extra inspiration I needed I get my butt in gear and get out there and run!
Training
I looked into a few different training plans and found Jeff Galloway's plans that runDisney supports and promotes. I tried to follow his plan as much as I could but sometimes life and weather create obstacles! During the summer I was doing great with the plan, but then Mother Nature decided we needed lots of snow and ice this year and that derailed all my training runs. I HATE running on a treadmill at the gym, put a treadmill in my basement and I would be fine but running at the gym is tough. There is so much going on that distracts me and if the person next to me smells or breathes funny or grunts while running .. You can't get away!!!
Do I have regrets about training and could have have trained better - yes, 100% I have regrets BUT you live and learn.
Nutrition
Horrible. My nutrition while training was horrible. I was eating well (most of the time) but I wasn't eating for what I was doing.
Again a live and learn moment.
Throughout the year I had lost 20lbs (not including the immediate 15lbs lost when Beth was born), I ran 4 5k races and 1 10k .. It is safe to say I have fallen in love with racing.. Not running.. Racing. I love the competitive aspect that comes with racing. I am not running to come first, I would love to and have a goal to win my age group this year at a race, but I love competing against my self and setting a new PB. 
Having the support of my family and friends this past year has been the biggest factor in all of this. Without them I wouldn't have found time to train, I wouldn't have been able to race Saturday mornings, and I forsure wouldn't have found the motivation to complete this challenge. I ran for a cajolery but I really ran for my health and to show my daughters they can do anything they want! Madison has been a great source of motivation.. She loves seeing my medals, she enjoys cheering for me and looking at race pictures.
Check back tomorrow for a race recap!
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