Saturday, May 29, 2010

How It Started...

"You're doing what?!?!", "How many miles is that?", "Why?!?!"...these were some of the reactions I got when I decided to join the Disney Half Marathon. Up until then, the most I had ever ran was a 10K or 6 miles. Was I scared? Absolutely! I don't at all consider myself a "runner". I jog 3 miles a few times a week when I can fight being lazy. The thought of anything more than 3 miles was terrifying. So why would I sign up to run 13.1 miles? In the eyes of a runner, 13.1 miles is what they might do weekly. Now a full marathon, 26.2 miles on the other hand, that's something to brag about. I figured I'd start slow and work my way up. After all, I'd graduated from a 5K to a 10K so taking my time to transition into a half marathon, I felt, was much wiser a decision than jumping right in to a full. Ok, truth be told, I feared the distance! I'll admit it!

I'd always known I wanted to do something like this but how? That's when I heard of Team in Training, a training program through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society where you train and raise money for the cause at the same time. At first I thought it would be great to help raise money to help fight cancer, then in December the news came. My cousin Adrian's daughter, Samantha was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. That's when I knew it was time to take the leap and sign up to do this. It was my motivation to finally stop saying I was gonna do something and finally do it the best way I knew I could---my approach to everything in life, one step at a time...

My donation page:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/disneyh10/jguevarqrw

Thanks for the support!






(Picture: Our Long Beach Team in Training)