Thursday, April 15, 2010

Well? How did I get here?

And by "here," I mean four days away from running the Boston Marathon.
  • August 2006: Joined Weight Watchers
  • October 2006: Ran a half mile on the treadmill at the gym, called it quits in exhaustion
  • November 12, 2006: Ran my first 5K in over six years and finished in 32:58
  • June 2007: Registered for the Detroit Half Marathon in a moment of wild speculation
  • October 21, 2007: Ran the Detroit half in 2:07:40, the farthest I'd ever run in my life, and said afterward there was "no way" I was ever going to run a full marathon
  • April 2008: Registered for the Detroit Marathon (so much for never running a marathon)
  • Sometime in the summer of 2008: Learned that one had to qualify for the Boston Marathon
  • September 27, 2008: Ran my final 20-mile training run for Detroit at a pace of 8:38/mile, which made me start thinking "What if..."
  • October 19, 2008: Ran the Detroit Marathon in 3:52:01, missing my Boston time by 6:02
  • About a minute after finishing Detroit: Decided I was going to BQ in Cleveland in May 2009, by god
  • January 2009: Started training for the Cleveland Marathon
  • February 2009: Briefly reached a total weight loss amount of 70 lbs (too bad I didn't stay there)
  • May 17, 2009: Ran a 3:45:14 at Cleveland, thereby qualifying for Boston
  • November 1, 2009: Ran the NYC Marathon and had the most fun I've ever had in a race, proving that running 26.2 miles at once can actually be enjoyable
  • January 2010: Started training for Boston
  • April 16, 2010: Depart for Boston
  • April 19, 2010: I will find myself in Hopkinton with 25,000 other runners
It has been an amazing journey, one I never thought I would undertake. I have gone from being a 220-plus pound couch potato1 to someone who is going to run the BOSTON MARATHON.

Never underestimate what you can accomplish if you set your mind and body to it.

1: I'm still a couch potato, but now I exercise a lot to offset my natural inclination toward laziness.

23 comments:

Mistyfied said...

WHAT AN ACCOMPLISHMENT CONGRATS ON YOUR BQ AND HAVE FUN. CANT WAIT FOR THE RACE REPORT.

Running Diva Mom said...

Awesome post -- love timeline posts like this! You have made GREAT accomplishments in the past few years. You are goign to rock Boston. Have a fabulous time, Sarah!

Jen Feeny said...

You gotta BELIEVE to ACHIEVE! Get it girl! See you this weekend!!!

Mary said...

Just stumbled across your blog. Congratulations and enjoy Boston! I'll be in the crowd cheering on all you runners.

Bri said...

Absolutely freaking unbelievable fantastically amazing! Have a wonderful time running Boston - woohoo! P.S. See you there next year ;)

gene said...

HEY! i'll be driving down to boston from VT to cheer folks on, probably close to the finish line. what is your bib number???
email me at boutdrz(at)gmail(dot)com so i can yell like a banshee!!!

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Congratulations on all your hard work. So many "impossible" things are doable if we can (and will!) do the work and stop looking for magic to happen. We make our own magic.

You'll have a fine time in Boston!

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Congratulations and GOOD LUCK, sister!

... proving that running 26.2 miles at once can actually be enjoyable.

I reject this "proof" as being unproven. I will reconsider this proof if you resubmit it after changing the wording to read "... can actually be enjoyable for me".

jen said...

Congratulations on all you've achieved so far and enjoy your Boston experience. :)

Carolina John said...

You've come a long way, baby. Where were you today?

Be safe tomorrow. let me know when you get there. and have FUN!

leftcoaster(BT) said...

I've been reading your blog for awhile and have enjoyed following your awesome journey to Boston. Just wanted to say thanks for mentioning the FIRST training a while back... I decided to use it as a guideline, and then was able to BQ as well. Maybe bump into you there... though I'll be waaaayyy in the back bringing up the rear of wave 2. HAVE A GREAT TIME!!!

Run Jess Run said...

You are awesome!!! Good luck in Beantown!!

C said...

Have a fantastic time!!! You definitely deserve it. :)

B. Kramer said...

Great job in four years. Best of luck to you on Monday. Cheers to you and your accomplishments. Have fun out there.

Melanie J Watts said...

Congratulations! All the best for your Boston marathon. I just ran my 1st 1/2 marathon last Sunday a year after I started running in 2 hrs. I feel the same way you did about running a whole marathon.

Midwest said...

That is amazing. I hope Boston is an incredible celebration for you.

mr loser said...

Cool recap of your journey, good luck on the next 26.2 miles of it.

Unknown said...

You don't know me, but I'll be cheering like mad at mile 25 (Kenmore Sq) - thanks for the inspiration and HAVE FUN on Monday!! I'm still somewhere between the fifth and sixth bullet points on yer list but have high hopes of getting to a BQ.

Vava said...

Wow. Quite the journey! Have a blast in Boston!!!

Psyche said...

What an amzing story! Good luck to you at Boston!!! Can't wait to read the race report.

BTW, I am new to your blog. You can thank the Booze Hounds:)

Blink said...

An awesome accomplishment. Enjoy every minute of running in Boston.

Christy Ashley said...

That's an awesome story! It was so great meeting you today! You will ROCK tomorrow!!!

Paul Rhodes said...

nice one ! I can totally empathise, but oin a smaller scale, im doing the Sydney half marathon in 2 weeks after losing 20kg and stopping smoking a year ago.....just started a blog too which kind of means i really am a runner, can we swop links

http://runnershigh-paul.blogspot.com/