Getting Started
I am starting this blog on the eve of my first half marathon. I have been running for a little over a year from the date of this post, and it has changed my life. I was forty pounds heavier when I started out. Running for 10 minutes made me feel like I was going to die. There were lots of run/walk intervals until I could run 3 miles without a walk break. The first time I did that I was very proud of myself. I had never done that in my whole life, even when I was a teenager I could not run a whole mile without taking walk breaks.
I started losing weight without dieting. It was great! Although working so hard at running made me more conscious about the junk I was putting in my body and found myself craving cleaner foods and water. So I did change my eating habits but did not put myself on a “diet”. There were more benefits than just weight loss, I had more energy and my mood was better. Running helped me recover from a bout of depression, and relieved my anxiety. I am a worrier by nature. I have never really been so at peace and calm as I am now.
Eventually I was running 6 miles a week three times a week and going to the gym 3 times a week for weight/cross training. I ended up taking off the whole 40 pounds and felt great. Since my weight goal met, I decided I wanted to challenge myself, so I started entering some races. After doing a 5k, 5 miler and a 10k, I decided to start training for a half marathon.
The training went well. The first time I ran 10 miles I was so excited. I reflected back on the fact that less than a year before I couldn’t even run a mile. As the mileage increased my knees started bothering me a little and my IT band tightened up, but I learned how to deal with those struggles. Stretching and icing really work wonders. When my long run got up to 13 miles I felt empowered and knew I could do the half and it was just a matter of being able to do it faster during the race.
My longest training run was 17 miles and after I did that I was exhausted but knew that I wanted to do a marathon sometime this year. I would like my first to be the Philly Marathon November 2009.
Tomorrow I will be running the 3M half marathon in Austin I am excited and nervous. Nervous because I sprained my ankle a few days ago and although it is feeling better I don’t know what a 13.1 downhill run will do to it and excited because no matter what my time I come in at I will be accomplishing one of my goals for this year.
Slow and steady still finishes the race
- Middalia Wayman
Filed under: Diet and fitness, Running Blog
Middalia-congrats on your race today and what you’ve been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. It’s nothing short of miraculous to me to go from not running to dropping 40 lbs and running as you do. I’m running my 5th marathon this year and I’ve lost about 15 pounds over the last four years but to drop 40 and make the progress you have-it’s inspiring.
What an inspiring story. I’m in the process of trying to lose 40 pounds myself so it’s great to read about your success.
@ Sweeter Good luck on your weight loss journey. It is so cliche but the best advice I can give is to eat healthier with smaller portions and move around a lot more
You can do it. I look forward to hearing of your success
just read this-so awesome. i have been running for about 13 years and have never ever gone past 6 miles. I am 40 years old and feel a change coming on!! I am determined to get past that mileage point! thanks for you honest wonderful insight into running.
Middalia you are inspiring =) I know that this was posted Jan. of this year… this is my 1st time reading this, Im trying 2 loose atleast 25 lbs, ive been trying 4 like 2 years now & i keep gaining =( after i saw your lastest pics in september of this year, You gave me the biggest boost =) I wish i noticed your websites sooner lol… Im soooo proud of you… you grew up 2 be a wonderful, inspiring, young woman…. Keep it up, im sure u will reach your goal =)
Middalia, I am so happy I stumbled upon your blog. I had done a search to find out how far the Williamson County Regional Park trail was and your blog popped up. I am a stay at home mom that has been jogging about 3 months now. I am so excited to be doing 3 miles continuously! Like yourself though my goals are growing. I will be doing the Race for the Cure in a couple of weeks. I had a couple of questions for you if you don’t mind. I think it would help me b/c we seem to be at similar points starting out as far as not being able to run much at all when we began the journey.
1) How did you begin running instead of jogging? (Currently I can do 3 1/2-4 miles continuous, but I am very slow, like a 12-13 mile!) I run with a baby jogger many times. I notice that the hills around here definitely slow me down….
2) What was your time frame as far as when you began to increase mileage and when you started to be concerned with speed?
3) What was your time at your first 5k? (I’m concerned I’ll be lucky with 45 minutes, yikes!)
I’m just trying to get an idea of some realistic expectations and really am inspired reading about your journey. Thanks so much for sharing- you rock!
Wendy
Wendy,
It sounds like you are making great progress. It took me a while to get faster. When I went from walk/run to just running I was probably going at a 12-13 min/mile. Build your mileage slowly about a 10% increase per week is what most of the experts recommend. Two things that really helped me get faster were interval training ( I would run 4 minutes fast and then 4 minutes slow) and running with someone a little faster than me. There are many running groups in our area, I’ve seen quite a few groups with strollers on the trail. As far as the 5K, I waited a while to do my first 5K race because I was scared (which was really silly), so my time is irrelevant. If you are running 12-13 minute miles without walking then you can probably expect to do just about the same on race day, probably a little faster. I would say you can definitely do a sub 40. For your first race I would recommend just doing your best and enjoying the experience, races are so much fun. And if you are doing the Race for the Cure at the Domain that is pretty flat course, so you should do great. Thank you so much for you kind comments and good luck to you!! Be patient and consistent and you will be amazed by how quickly your speed and endurance improve.
Wow, I love it! You can I have a similar story. This is the first post I read, so I’m anxious to read more and see how your training is coming along.
Congrats!
Jen