Hey people!! You're probably wondering why the title is what it is... So I will explain.
Right before 2010 started I decided I wanted to do something I considered 'crazy'... Enter the triathlon. This was something that I watched on TV every now and then, but nothing that I ever thought I would do. I mean, I could swim, and I had biked before, and I knew if I could walk then I could probably run... Right? Right. Kind of.
I was raised as a swimmer. And when I say that, I'm not kidding. It would be comparable to someone saying they were raised Italian. But for me, it was swimming. I started at the ripe age of 4, and soon all of my siblings (there are four of us total) were swimming for the team. Fourteen years later I was graduating from high school (as a swimmer, no doubt), and had been on both the local YMCA team and on my high school team.I think it would be safe to say that at this point I had slight disdain for the sport I had dedicated most of my adolescence to. And then after taking almost four years off, I missed being competitive. I missed being "athletic" (I guess you could say I somewhat was!). I missed 'training'. And so I began my search for a sport that would allow me to show my 'crazy' and to 'train' and be 'athletic' again. I never thought it would include a return to the water.
Once I got the idea in my head that I was going to do a triathlon, nothing stopped me. Not the fear of combining training with school, not the fear of being the only chubby girl out there, not the fear that it would conflict with my student teaching, and definitely not the fear that I wouldn't finish. I was COMMITTED. And for me, that meant serious business.
Two years later I look back and think that I was crazy. And that the people around me, the ones who saw me running everyday, and the ones who smelled only chlorine even after I showered, and the ones that saw me riding around in my spandex with my bike "Freud", I'm going to guess they thought I was crazy as well. The biggest lesson I have learned since then is that I am not alone. I am not the only crazy out there. And the growing strength of the sport proves it.
The other part of this story included more than just a desire to be back into something. It included the desire to lose weight. I had always been heavier, but never as heavy as I was before I decided to do a triathlon. I had gained almost 50 pounds during undergrad, and I was not about the graduate looking like I had another person under my gown. Since then, I have lost almost 30 of those pounds. It has been difficult. It has been torturous. It has made me cry and laugh and hate my weekends. But two years have gone by and I am obsessed with exercise, triathlons, and (get this)... Half marathons. I became a half marathon runner when the most I had run before was a 5k. Like I said, I have a little bit of crazy, and a lot of determination.
Throughout my journey people have been, lets say amazed, at my attitude, my struggles, my determination and my drive. I love what I do. I love my new life. I love love love the hard work I put into things. Therefore, I am hoping that this blog will serve as my own personal commitment to both training hard and further pursuing my weight goal, and to also help inspire other people to get involved with being physical. I like to say to people that ask... If I can, You can. No excuses.
I hope this blog will help motivate and inspire you, and will also motivate and inspire me. I cannot wait to share my stories and hear your thoughts. Please comment as often as you would like!
Just keep running/swimming/biking,
Charity <3
No comments:
Post a Comment