Yes, I really did walk a half marathon!

And I'd like to tell you about it :)

Warning:  this entry is long, picture-heavy, and may not be in complete sentences.

about to begin our epic adventure

So ... where to begin?

It was hard.
but not impossible.

Cheering Gramma and the Boyz

We set (and kept) such a good pace that my poor brother-in-law who had planned out all the cheering spots on the route, based on me telling him I did 15-minute miles ... totally missed us (but they were all there yelling at the end!).  I felt horrible that he'd worked so hard to get my mom and 3 squirrelly little boys to those spots on the map and then he felt bad for not meeting us and then Sharon made a good point:  if we were missing our cheerleaders because we were walking at such a fantastic pace, that was a pretty awesome thing.  Also, at least one of the boys thought one of us would win and/or break a record.  Love that.

There was a point at which I thought, "am I going to have to stop?"
and shortly after that I thought, "I'm just going to have to tell Sharon to go on ahead and I'll just finish it much more slowly."
I got a little bit choked up when I realized we were on the final incline into the stadium.
...and shortly after that we were done!

Yes, I'd do it again.
Although maybe not in cold, wet Seattle (but there's something to be said for sea-level).

obligatory fog shot

And in case I didn't make it clear in my "night before the marathon" post, let me be clear:  although my legs will never be shorter, losing all this weight has made a HUGE difference in how I feel about flying.  Seriously.  While not actually "comfortable", my flights to/from Seattle and again at Christmas to/from Vermont were totally new experiences for me.  Flying 50+ pounds lighter is just plain nothing like it was when I was heavy(ier).  Fitting into the seat and not spending the entire flight pushing down the armrest that my fat is pushing up makes the whole flight so pleasant!  And although I never used a seat belt extender, I'm pretty sure I was on the way to needing one.  Thankfully I will never experience that and even though my hips are still pretty wide, they now fit in the standard coach seat just fine, thankyouverymuch.  Amazing. 

Love this pic of my sis and her oldest

There's a picture at my sister's house I've always liked.  It's from when we lived in Turkey, and for some reason my sister (age 5?  6? no older) went jogging with my dad, who was the Chief of Police on base.  The pic was taken by an "official" photographer and I think ended up in the base newspaper or something.  When I saw this one of my sister her and her (oldest son) manchild, I got choked up because it reminded me of that other picture. I love their smiles here, I love that even though she told him to go on ahead without her he stayed with her, and I love the man he's becoming!



And here is my fabulous oldest niece.  Her foot hurt, and she had to slow down, but you'd never know it from this pic.  This is the happy, sunny girl I have known since ... hmmm ... since she was 4 months old at our wedding.  I love this beautiful, smart, funny, thoughtful girl so much!  I'm so, so glad she did this race with us!

And here we are, about to cross the finish line.  I realized later that all the stuff I had in my vest pockets made me look pregnant, but oh well. Those kinds of things don't actually bother me as much anymore.  Funny, that.  Also?  In all the official pictures of the race, my mouth is open.  I may or may not have talked Sharon's ear off.  Whoops.

Here is the whole squad at the end.  I  seriously love this shot. We did it!  We all did it! (sis is wearing a warming blanket -- that question has come up a lot)  See our medals?  They are surprisingly substantial-feeling.  And I wished I'd worn mine on the flight home.  Oh well.  Now I know.







And here are some of our cheerleaders and two of the runners, warming up ... in the warming room.  I have very cute nieces and nephews, no?






If you are considering walking or running a half marathon, I can recommend a great post-marathon routine:

• Go to the evening service at church.
• Try to stay awake.  It's HARD.  I'm not gonna lie.
• Have Chipotle for dinner (seriously, a burrito as big as your head is a GREAT way to begin to fill the huge hole in your gut that won't be satisfied).
• Followed by chocolate chip cookie dough.
• And a pedicure the next day.

chocolate chip cookie dough: post marathon win

• 
  

Or a lemon-basil martini the next.  I recommend all of the above :)

Plus-sized models, lattes and staircases. Oh my?

Remember when I wrote my Dear John letter to big girl stores?  Well, even though I wrote it, I'm still getting mailers (no surprise).  A couple nights ago, the hubs picked up the mail and this card was in it.  He commented that at one time, I actually looked a bit like this girl, and it occurred to him that for one thing, I didn't anymore, and for another, I probably couldn't even shop at Lane Bryant any more.  I grinned and told him about my Dear John letter :)

a couple years and about 50 pounds ago

And then there's this.  It's something I realized this week.  My attitude toward food/fuel/intake is changing.  Slowly, like The Titanic attempting to execute a tight turn ... but still; it's changing.  Maybe this doesn't seem like a big deal to you, but it is to me.  There was only about a quarter of a cup left in the bottom of my latte mug and it was cold.  So I threw it out.  Keep in mind it wasn't a $5 drink I had paid for; it was a latte I had made in my own kitchen (yeah, yeah, I know I paid for it, but you know).  I guess my thinking was that I've had enough caffeine from it, I'm not hungry, and it doesn't actually taste good once it's cold, so ... why keep drinking those calories?  I don't need 'em.  And this wasn't the first time!  I bet I've changed "1 latte" to "3/4 serving" in loseit.com about 10 times in the last 2 months.  That's a lot of saved calories!  I know -- this isn't a big thing, really.  But in terms of all the times in my life I've finished a plate or a bowl or a something of something, just because it was in front of me?  It's a big thing :)  (I included the pic because it occurred to me I make really big lattes and this "small thing" might seem even smaller if you were picturing a smaller drink)

And here's another non-milestone milestone:  I used to knock myself out to stay upstairs or downstairs.  That is, when I left the upstairs, I'd carry everything with me I could think of that I'd need when I was on the main level.  And vice versa -- if I went upstairs, I wanted to be done downstairs.  Not have to run back down for something I forgot or didn't need once I got up there, regardless of what I'd planned in advance.  To spell it out:  I avoided the staircase like the plague.  It put me out of breath, it hurt my knees, it kind of hurt my back, and if I forgot something once I got up or down it; tough.  I'd just get that thing later or take care of it when I went back up or down for something bigger.  Yes, that's how out of shape I was - I avoided my own staircase.  Really.  Guess what?  Now it doesn't bother me at all.  I can run up or down it as much as I like or need to.  And if I forget something?  I view it as extra calories burned!  In a good way (not like "I don't have to work out because I went up one flight of stairs)!  If I get downstairs and realize I left something upstairs, I just run right back up and get it!

And you know what?  I had thought (but not mentioned to the hubs at all) about 3 or 4 years ago that we probably couldn't live in this house much longer based on the way my knees felt.  Yeah, right.  You see what I was thinking?  Let's get a ranch-style house because I'm too fat to take the stairs.  Let's move everything because I'm fat.  Let's leave a neighborhood we like and a fabulous view of the foothills because I'm fat.  I know some people don't like that word, but I use it to make a point.  And really?  I don't want to do any of those things because I'm overweight.  I only want to do those things when we're ready to buy a new house ... for whatever is the right reason at that time.  But certainly not because the stairs make my knees hurt.  Because frankly it was never the stairs making my knees hurt ...

Green eggs & ham

Let's get something straight.  Nobody wants to drink spinach.  I mean, seriously?  Sure, there might be a couple weirdo, gluten-free, super-healthy Boulder, Colorado dwellers who do, but in general, Joe Normal is not looking to slurp spinach through a straw.

At least that's what I thought until Wednesday night.  This is me, eating my words.

yes, that's one of my new headbands!

If you've been on the Internet in the last 2 years, you've seen people posting pictures of green smoothies.  I swear not a week goes by that at least one of my friends doesn't post a green smoothie pic on Facebook. Weirdos.

Fast forward to some point in the day on Wednesday.  I'm on a boring conference call, I pull Pinterest down from my browser, and once again ... ANOTHER GREEN SMOOTHIE!  What the WHAT?  Geez people, give it a rest!  However, for some reason, I decided to click through to the blog.  Under the first picture, in nice bold letters, this smart blogger wrote " they do not taste healthy at all. I repeat, they do not taste healthy at all."  Now THIS sounds interesting!

So I kept reading through this entry, looked at the ingredients, and decided 2 things.  1.  that since I had done a short walk with the neighbor that morning, I would go to the gym with the hubs that night, and 2.  reward myself with a Green Monster Smoothie (notice I've modified the name to remove the word "spinach").

Don't get me wrong; I like spinach.  In salads and ... spinach artichoke dip, and salads.  So I just can't reconcile how this is going to taste in my brain, you know?

But I got the ingredients and got ready to work out again.  I figured if it was awful, I could just make salad with the rest of the baby spinach.
 
Let me tell you this:

• It wasn't awful.
• In fact, it was kind of good.
• So good that I purposely took a short walk* today so I could go to the gym with the hubs later this morning so I can come home and have another.
• It was TOTALLY FILLING!  I mean, seriously.  Today I am going to make a half.  It was that filling.
• And I felt more energetic the day after.  Maybe it was just a placebo effect, but I swear I have been complaining about how tired I am lately, and I did NOT feel that on Thursday.
• So now I too can post a pic of a green smoothie.

If you DO want to make one, I'll tell you the change I made.  I didn't freeze my banana in advance (who remembers to do that?).  But that wasn't a problem, because I believe smoothies should have ice in them.  So I put about a half of a cup or so of crushed ice in the bottom of my blender, and then loaded it with everything else.  Worked like a charm.


*short walk = 3 miles.  I know, right?

Encouragement!

Friends, let me encourage you.  Here's what I learned this week ... which is ironic, because I already knew it.  On Wednesday, I just wanted to drink a salt shaker.  Really.  I just. wanted. salt.  So I finished the leftover potato chips from Saturday.  Then I went to the store for groceries and something else jumped into my basket.  They're new! They're from Tostitos!  They are BAKED THREE CHEESE QUESO!  (whatever that is)  And so of course when I got home, I ate them too (no, not the whole bag! what do you think I am - a monster?).

Baked Three Cheese Queso!

I know what you're thinking:  "how is this encouragement, exactly?"

Well, I'll tell you.  You know I'm using loseit.com to track what I'm eating/how I'm moving.  I watch it like a hawk from day to day, to be honest.  But it's also great for watching cumulative data.  For example, in looking at this week's summary, I can see that already for this week, I am 1,114 calories under my budget.  Those are all exercise calories (believe you me; I am NOT starving myself!), but regardless, I am under budget.  So after I ate all the salt in the house on Wednesday, I was sure I'd wake up on Thursday with an "up" arrow on the scale.

SHOCK OHMYWORD I AM SHOCKED!

I was down a half pound.

And that, my friends, is the power of cumulative activity in combination with eating well.  Many "diet" programs have the concept of a "cheat day", or a down day, or a day when you don't count points, and believe you me, I am not a medical professional, so you probably shouldn't listen to me anyway,  but ... if you pay attention to what you're doing, and are in a regular exercise program (walking counts!), then the occasional Baked Three Cheese Queso day will not kill you.

One of my brothers put it this way:  "Day-to-day variation seems to be related more to the water content of your body and the material content of your digestive system than to the fat content of your body."  In other words, try to poop before you weigh yourself :)