November 11, 2013

Motivational Monday #40


I want to start by wishing a Happy Veteran's Day to all the men and women who have served or are serving our country. I am SO grateful, and I thank you for your service!! This is a picture of my "little" brother, Nathan, who joined the Army shortly after 9/11/01. He spent three years in Iraq! I'm so happy that he is home safe now :)


Today is also Motivational Monday, and there are some great stories to share. The highlight of my week was definitely yesterday's half-marathon. I felt SO good through the whole race, and it made me excited to do some more races in the spring.

I'm still struggling to stay on track for more than a day or two at a time. I go through phases like this sometimes, and it makes me feel hopeless for a while! I'm trying my best, but it's a daily battle. I always love Motivational Monday, because I feel hopeful going into the week :)


Blaine:
"About six months ago, I was feeling super tired and sluggish every day, work was getting hard to go to, my stress level was through the roof, and I knew I had to do something. I remember hearing your story on the Today Show a few months before and thought I would look your story up. Oh, boy, did it motivate me. I started doing daily walk/runs barely able to run a tenth of a mile, but slowly I built up my tolerance. The first time I ever ran a mile without stopping, I cried. Never in my life have I been able to run a mile.
I then decided to sign up for a 5k to have something to build toward. I ran that 5k about a month ago and the day I ran it I signed up for a 10k. Over the past month I had horrible runs, extra stress at work, and almost didn't show up for the race this weekend. Again, people I don't know motivated me to finish. The night before the race, I was at a birthday party and people were asking me why I wasn't drinking. I told them I had a race in the morning, and their encouragement made me show up for the race. It was freezing, but I went. I had three goals in mind: 1) don't die, 2) don't walk, and 3) don't finish last. I beat all three of my goals and most importantly, I beat the girl I was 6 months ago--barely able to get out of bed to go to work. So far I've lost 45 pounds and I owe my initial motivation all to you and your blog, so thank you for inspiring me. I'm going to tackle a half marathon in the spring, and I'm so excited to do it."


Chris:
"On Saturday night, my sister, boyfriend and I put our ten months of training to the test and ran the Walt Disney World Wine and Dine Half Marathon. When I started running in January, I couldn't run a minute without feeling panicky and out of breath. I trained using Couch to 5K and eventually ran a 5K, then another.  I signed up for the half with my supportive sister and boyfriend. We trained faithfully using Jeff Galloway's program. In the process, I lost 50 pounds!"



Cindy:
"I had my first 10K this weekend! I still cannot believe I ran 6.27 miles at once. I've been on motivational Monday before for a 5K and my first triathlon in August. I am starting to believe I am actually a runner.  It was about 1.5 hours after I finished that I said aloud that I would enjoy doing another 10K. LOL!  My goal was 1 hour 20 minutes and I finished in 1:19:46!!"





Jennifer:
"On Sunday, I accomplished something that 11 months ago I hadn't even joked of attempting--a full marathon. I started the Couch to 5k plan at New Year's, and continued to their 5k to 10k plan, then on to a half, then a full!"


Lisa:
"I ran my second half marathon yesterday, with a time of 2:04, beating my previous best of 2:11!  It was the "All Women & One Lucky Guy Half."  There were 770 women in the race and they choose ONE guy through a $5 lottery (money goes to charity) to run.  He won for his division!  It was COLD and windy and damp.  I couldn't feel my fingers after mile 4 or so.  When they handed me my pretty pink heart-shaped medal, I dropped it because I couldn't grip anything.  Luckily they had hot soup at the finish line!  I'm freezing and drenched in sweat and can barely stand or hold my medal in this picture, but I'm thrilled that I finished!  I've always been a wimp about the weather, so this was a huge challenge for me."


Pam:
"I beat a 9-year old 5k PR this weekend! Went from 32:26 to 31:41! Set that old PR in January 2005 when I'd just turned 30, and considering I'm now staring down 40, I'm pretty happy with that."  (Pam's race report)


Janelle:
"I started seriously running in July. A hot July. I'm talking over 100 degrees. I don't know what I was thinking but I just kept pushing myself to go out and run. I was running 11:00-11:30 miles. Usually 2.5-3 miles at a time.  And it was hard and HOT!

The next month I pushed myself to run more frequently than the previous month. And I kept improving my time. My goal for October was to run 50 miles. I did it. In fact, I ran 62 miles for the month. My other goal was to run a sub 30 5k. By this time I was running a 5k very regularly (4-5 times per week) but I just couldn't meet my time goal.  Each time I ran I got so close and then one day IT HAPPENED! I ran a sub-30 5k and every day I'm getting faster. I can now run a 28:20 5k and its not even that hard for me anymore.

Just a couple months ago I was only running a couple miles at a time. Then I got good enough to run a 5k several times a week, but I just couldn't figure out how to run over a 5k. I just couldn't imagine running 4 miles. I've now done it several times. And today I ran over 6 miles. I can hardly believe it.

And the thought that keeps running through my mind when things get tough is something you brought up a few weeks ago. It was the sign you saw that said "remember when you thought you couldn't do this?" Well, it wasn't so long ago that I didn't think I could do this-any of this-run 5 days per week, run a 5k, run a sub 30 5k, run 4 miles, run 6 miles. But I'm doing it. And my self esteem is improving a little bit at a time.  And I keep wondering how fast I could be if I got rid of the extra 40 pounds I'm carrying around. And I keep wondering that if I can run 6 miles then maybe I can run a half marathon. And I hope someday in the next year I will look back on how far I've come and think "remember when I thought I couldn't do this?""



Stacy:
"For the last several weeks I have been eating right and walking everyday.  As a result I was able to do a 13-mile bike ride with my husband on Saturday without NEEDING to stop (except for the occasional photo-op or red light).  The last time we rode, last spring, I had an emotional break-down half way through and couldn't even ride 5 minutes without taking a break.  I felt great the whole way through!   I think that's pretty impressive for being 285 lbs (and dropping)."


Congrats to everyone this week--you are truly motivating! Feel free to check out the Motivational Monday Facebook post for some more stories.

5 comments:

  1. Wonderful accomplishments this week everyone!

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  2. Thank you Nathan, for your service!!!

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  3. thank you to your brother and congratulations to everyone's accomplishments. they continue to motivate me!

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  4. I am a new runner with an autoimmune illness (that ha left me disabled from working full-time). I have lost 65 lbs and still have about 35 to go. You have no idea how helpful it is for me to read these stories every Monday! I have been running for about 6 weeks and am slowly making progress...

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I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

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