the beginning....

My name is Beth, and I am on a journey. The journey to discover the physical, mental and emotional me, that I suspect has been pawing for an expressive outlet for most of my life, and frankly, I am tired of telling the little voice inside me to be quiet!

In fact, I am not sure why I have spent so much energy trying to keep her under wraps for as long as I have? I think that there are a multitude of reasons, none of which have much sway with me currently, so recalling them is a bit of a trick. Regardless, this is me now. I am a work in progress, and happily so!

I have always had a silent but sincere goal to run a marathon by the time I was 30 years old. Well, as biology and humurous father time would have it, I am 30! Will be until July of 2010. So, the SLC Marathon in April fits the bill. And here we go!

Starting this goal while I was a smoker, and a pretty regular drinker, plus not being really that regularly active at all...has given me the opportunity to accomplish a lot!

Starting with the smoking and drinking, together with my husband, who has been so strong and amazing!! This is still a work in progress, with more days of success than failure. To be discussed in further detail at a later date.

The workouts were not as hard amazingly!!! I have a good friend and a neighbor who happens to belong to the same gym as I do, and so working out for the first week was more about keeping a commitment, than it was about any certain physical accomplishment. That quickly changed however, and the search for training programs for beginning runners quickly became my focus. Along with proper nutritional guidance, and as many motivational quotes and success stories as I could find!

Well, I am happy to say that I am three weeks in and have lost 6 lbs. Have lost 3% body fat. Have lost 5 inches total on my body. And I can almost run for a solid 30 minutes, for roughly 3 miles.

I have 4 more weeks on my current Beginners running program until I have hit my 1st goal of exactly that: 30 minutes, 3 miles. I am so motivated, and focused!!!

Quote of my week: "It never gets easier, you just like it more!"

Until the next post, peace to you on your path!