Running running running

Happy Monday!!!  I'm over @ Shaping Up To Be A Mom talking to my girl Megan's friends today.  Click on over and check out her blog and see what I have to say about my running these days.

Meanwhile, SHE'S HERE today and I'm SO happy to have her!!!  Meg is very kind and very fun and I just love her.  

---

Hey all you partiers over here at the Houtz House! I'm Megan from Shaping Up To Be A Mom, and I'm here to tell you about what an awesome runner I am.

I'm not an awesome runner at all.

Have a great day!

Okay, I'll share a little more! I started running back in 2007, before I had any kids. I was never a runner growing up, and I'm not really sure why I started! Maybe because I wanted to lose weight, or maybe because I've always been goal-oriented and I just wanted to see if I could do it.

Either way, I took up running again after having my two little ones. This time the goal was clear- get back some semblance of my pre-baby body!

I love you guys, but you ruined all this up in here!

Last Christmas, my husband based all my gifts on my 30 Before 30 list, including signing me up to run a 10k! I trained for 8 weeks, ran the farthest I had ever run (7 miles), and then ran the race! I ran the whole time, and I didn't come in last, and those were my two goals!

Saying hi to the kiddos before the gun!

A few days later, I signed up for my first half marathon. Then somebody said, "Wow, you're running a half marathon at the end of the summer? So you'll be training all through the summer?"

Yeah...hadn't thought about that. P.S. I live in southern Arizona...

But I've been doing it! I am exactly halfway through my training, and last Saturday I ran 10 miles, the most I have ever run in my life, by far! My next two long runs will be 11 and 12 miles, and then they go down to 9 and 8 in the two weeks before the race (which is 13.1, in case you didn't know).

Sometimes I take pictures while I'm running...

I wish I had some good tips to share, but like I said, I am not an awesome runner at all! I am very slow. Very, very slow. Let's just say that in the time it took me to run those 10 miles, some people could have finished a marathon. But you know what they say, "slow and steady {finishes} the race!"

For me, running is a mental exercise as well as a physical one. I struggle more with my mind telling me to stop rather than my legs! So far I have run my long runs without stopping to walk. I have found that if I stop to walk once, I will keep stopping to walk, often. So I try not to.

At my half marathon, there will be aid stations at miles 3, 6, 9, 11, and the end. So I figure I will skip the first station, and stop for a drink at the others, but run the entire time I'm on the race course. I'm going to think of it as just 6 miles, then just 3, then just 2, and then just 2 more! So far I have run all my long runs without stopping for a drink, but I think I'm going to need to start doing that for my 11 and 12 mile runs.

I have been listening to audio books while running, because when you are out there for hours at a time, even your favorite music can get old. When I find my mind wandering, I just pause the audio book and just enjoy thinking for awhile. I've had a lot to think about lately!

You'll have to check back over at my place after August 25th, to see how the race went! And don't forget to hop over there today, to read Kelly's post! Thanks for reading!

I'm SO proud of Megan for keeping her goal in sight and going for it!!!  I can't wait to hear how everything goes!!!  YOU GO GIRL!!!


Now, run on over and check out her blog and OF COURSE follow her because you'll love her too!  


PS:  Megan JUST happens to be the brains behind A Look Back Link-Up that I co-host with her, Brooke & Megan (yep another Megan).  Come back on August 1st as we take you back to 1986.  Put your own post together and link up, so we can see what YOUR 1986 was like!  We can't wait!!!