C25K.....check.....now what?

Today I finished the couch to 5k program. I followed it to-a-t, dieted, and am on my way to dropping the last 10 pounds I need to take off.

Why, you might ask, am I now writing a blog? Well, this morning as I was running I started writing this post in my head. Then the rest of the blog started forming. You see, I'm just not what one might call athletic. Over the last 9 weeks, I can honestly say I have fallen in love with running. I feel better than ever, I have become a bit obsessed with running blogs, running accessories, all things running related.

You see, I'm a bit of an over achiever, type A, love to work, wife, mom, sister, daughter, friend, student........the list goes on. I have battled with my weight since I was 10. I am not coordinated at all, just ask my friends who were there in 6th grade to watch me break my elbow while flying a kite....seriously. During college I achieved what I thought was a great weight. Wedding day, oh yeah I went on a major diet and looked great. But truly, this was an absolute roller coaster.

Over 2 years ago, while shopping with my mom and daughter, I had a major seizure, fractured my skull in 3 places, perfectly fractured my eardrum in my left ear (I hate to do things halfway). After another seizure in the ER, transfer to Shands Hospital, week of tests that I have just one little memory of, there was no medical reason for this. This is common for women in their late 20's and beyond to have happen, the only thing they can attribute this to is stress. Really? I hate answers like that, but that's all I got.

The Lord truly had a plan for this event in my life, especially after being told multiple times how close to ending my life this event came. My hubby was perfect (even while sleep deprived, stretched, woken up due to massive leg cramps.) My family was amazing, my church family did more than I could have imagined, the prayers alone were more than enough!

The one question that stuck with me...what are your hobbies? When I answered reading, the neurologist said, no, that's not a real hobby......I didn't like that answer either, as I love to get lost in a great book.

In the months and months to follow, I kept adding weight, my doctor put me on cholesterol medicine because that was climbing. Every time I heard the same thing "Stephanie, you really need to lose weight and get some exercise.". No kidding.....but I don't like to exercise and I love food....no really I LOVE food!

A friend of ours started biking last year, did P90x and dropped a ton of weight. He truly inspired my hubby and I to get the DVDs. So we tried that. Let me just say, I really don't do the superman/banana moves justice. I think I spent too much time laughing at myself. So, then our buddy Steve took my hubby biking. Dave got hooked, the next thing I know we are all biking.

Quick side note, my hubby has only fluctuated 10 lbs in the 10 years we have been married. He now weighs 5 lbs more than he did when we got married. I on the other hand have fluctuated well over 40 pounds in those same 10 years.

So, we start mountain biking (totally love Santos Trails in Ocala and the fact that we live 15 minutes from the trailhead!). Dave is progressing, Ky (our daughter) is great at it. I enjoyed it, but really didn't see myself improving or losing any weight.

I go to church with some amazing people. Two of the women ran in The Disney Princess Half Marathon earlier this year. A couple months ago they talked our pastors wife to run in the Half marathon next year, if they could get 12 women from our church committed to do it also. So, these amazing women started asking around, telling us how much fun it was, showing us the medal they received for finishing it. There's something about shiny sparkly things that just makes a girl smile! So they told me about C25k.

This was shortly after my very good friend Lisa and I decided to challenge each other to lose 30 lbs, (you'll have to read my bio for the cause for that challenge) so we began the program in hopes to complete the half marathon in February 2012. Now, there are several of us encouraging one another, and my best cheerleader and running accountability partner, Amber, helped me prepare the schedule for the next segment of training.

I'm going to run in my first 5k on Sept 17, so we'll see how it goes. If you're reading this, welcome to the beginning of my journey. Where will it go? Not totally sure right now. I've titled my blog "Faith Run" because my greatest desire is to live my daily life trusting God and running hard after Him. Do I always succeed, well NO! Does that mean I give up, NO WAY! So, my running is actually about more than my physical health. I'm now down 28 lbs and I want to lose another 10 now. Lace up because I'm running, are you coming with me?