13.1 in 2013!!!

Today while taking a shower (all the awesome ideas happen in the shower!!) I decided I am going to run a half-marathon in 2013!  So appropriate! 13.1 in 2013!!

At the beginning of this year I promised myself that I would spend this year working on me (inside and out).  As it turns out building self confidence is harder than it seems!  I cannot remember a time when I had a healthy self-esteem level.  I decided to start a blog to help me keep track of my progress, etc. 

I am a 32-year-old, work-from-home mom of two children (an 8 year old and a 4 year old).  I have a wonderful husband who puts up with all my craziness, two kitties (<3) and 3 dogs.  As I said, I have never had great self confidence, but working from home has really taken a toll on the little confidence I did have.  First of all, with sitting at a desk for eight hours a day I gained some pounds!  We won't  talk about how many...  Also, when you work from home it's very easy to isolate yourself and never leave the house.  That's a bad thing, and that is what I have done over the last 2 years of working at home. 

In January and February I did some crash dieting, no bueno!! Around May I realized that I really needed to work on myself on the inside too.  Hubby had just run the Warrior Dash, and I was so jealous that I couldn't do it with him.  So, I started one of the couch to 5K programs.  I really enjoyed it and got up to running 7 minutes at a time (on the treadmill) when I hurt my ankle.  I had to take a month off to let it heal and then we went on vacation, yadda, yadda, yadda, and that puts me where I am now.  It's October and I still cannot run a full 5K!! 

Hubby and I did the Dirty Dash in September, and I realized just how much work I need to do!  I was so slow!  Also, I felt like I didn't let myself enjoy it as much as I should have because of anxiety about my slowness, my lack of self confidence, etc....BUT the one thing that I have realized is that running really works wonders for your self esteem!  After I finish a run I feel a little bit better about myself, and looking at pictures of myself from the Dirty Dash makes me realize I'm not quite the GIANT COW I feel like I am. :)

I figure with a year to train that I should be able to get to where I want to be for a half!  We shall see!