How I Became a Runner...

I was never a runner.  It's not that I wasn't athletic or anything, I just didn't like to run for a no reason.  I was part of a tennis team all through my high school years and I remembered hated January because I knew we were about to do a week of conditioning...which meant it involved RUNNING!

So how did I got myself into running 2 half marathons in 2012?  Well, it all started with wanted to end my 20's with something I have never done before...running a 5k.  I really don't know how I came up with that idea.  Sure, I could have came up with other things that didn't involved running like go skydiving, or get certified in scuba diving...but yet, I came up with one thing I hated the most...RUNNING...

Once I came up with a goal, I started looking for a 5k race that was before my birthday, and I came across with Azelea 5k run in Valdosta, a week before my 30th birthday....PERFECT! But, I decided to wait to register until I was comfortable running at least 2 miles.  This all happened in December of 2008 so I got all of my running gear (Nike running shoes and Nike+ chips) for Christmas and officially started training in January.  I used couch to 5k program and I started great!  My pace was awful, but I didn't care back then because all I wanted to do was to FINISH the 5k race...I ran at least 2 - 3 times a week in January and felt great...February came, I started slacking off...then BAM! I got Brochitis and my goal of finishing 5k before turning 30 came to an abrupt stop...

Now, let's fast forward to 2010....A friend of mine (A Disney fanatic just like me), was telling me that she was going to run her first half marathon at Disney World...WHAT?? There's a race at the most magical place on earth?!?!?!?!  I didn't know that Disney has Endurance Series every year at the park.  So I started looking around and found a yet another PERFECT race for me...a 5K run at DISNEY WORLD!!  And get this...EVERY RUNNERS gets a MEDAL! That's even better!!  This time, without hesitation, I signed up for the race.  It was a little pricier than normal 5k race, but I didn't care!  I wanted to run through one of the Disney parks, and most of all, I WANTED A MEDAL!!!  This time, I was DETERMINED to finish what I didn't get to finish a year ago.  I started training in November, which was only 2 months before the race...I worked real hard because Disney had a pace requirement of 16min/mile...

The day of the race finally came and I was very nervous...but I tried my very best and crossed the finish line! (I'll blog more in details on that race one day!) When I did cross it, the lady handed me my VERY FIRST MEDAL...Well, it was a rubber medal and wasn't a bling that I was expecting, but at least I got a medal and made me feel like I have accomplished something!  I felt really good after the race, and felt like wanted to do some more!  The next day, I got up early to cheer for my friend who ran the half marathon...Seeing all sizes and shapes of people running the Disney half marathon was amazing, and got me wanted to run half marathon at Disney ONE DAY........and and that ONE DAY is going to be on January 8, 2012!! I would never THOUGHT of doing it EXACTLY a year from my very first 5k!! 

That is HOW I became a RUNNER...and became a BLING-A-HOLIC!