It's been awhile, a long while, since you last heard from this fat runner. As you may have guessed it, it's marathon season and I am back with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. Team in Training is a program that trains you to run an endurance race while you fundraise to help fight blood cancers. This is my third season with Team in Training. I'm running the Disney marathon in January, making it my second marathon. While people run marathons all the time, what makes me different is that not only do I not look like a stereotypical runner, but I also had to drop 200 lbs. to …

I was ready to hit the ground running in 2011-  I had the Disney Marathon to run, my love life was looking promising and I had gotten my personal training certification. Well I hit the ground running in 2011 but they forgot to warn me of the ice and I (figuratively) felt flat on my back. On my slide down, I must have hit my head and developed amnesia because I seem to have forgotten who I am. I've been battling a Lupus flair up for weeks and just days before I was to leave on a flight to Florida for the Disney Marathon, I come down with pneumonia. I always finish what I start but in this case…

After pushing myself to train and run a marathon, and then battling back from an injury in hopes to do it all over again two months later, my body has had enough.  I've officially worn my body down. Already having Lupus, I know that my body has limits but I sometimes forget them and just forge ahead.  I've been sick for the past month and have been telling myself that I could still run the Disney Marathon... even with an injury and being sick.  I kept training and pushing myself and ignoring the signs my body was giving me to stop.  Because of it, I am now seriously sick with pneumonia.  …

The cold has finally arrived and while most of mother nature is snuggling up in a warm place to wait out the winter (including most Americans) there are still plenty of opportunities to be active and enjoy the outdoors. Most of us take the winter months off from being active. We put on our fluffy warm sweaters and watch the season change from inside of our houses but skipping out on those runs takes a toll on our bodies.  It is no coincidence that the rate of heart attacks in the winter time are significantly higher than all of the other seasons combined. Think about it, it has been cold, …

Call me the comeback kid because after a painful injury and over a month of physical therapy, conditioning and strength training two times a day EVERY day, I am finally back on track for the Disney Marathon.  It has been a really rocky few weeks that has taken a toll on me physically and emotionally but like usual, I never gave up. Running is my respite, it is what keeps me centered and focused.  It is my healthy habit that has replaced the role food use to play in my life and I thought I would be ok, maybe even happy to not run for a few weeks but by the end of week one I was feeling …

Likes long walks on the beach and to read a good book... Remember when that was good enough to find the love of your life, or at least land you a date? Well, times have changed and it's harder now than ever to find good matches. The truth is, its even harder now that I've lost weight and changed my life than it's ever been.   I've been on a two-year hiatus from the dating world - by choice.  When I started my weight loss journey, I knew that there was a lot I had yet to discover about myself and that there was a good chance I would emerge from this all a different person than I was at that …

Holidays can be stressful for everyone but it's especially stressful for those of us trying to navigate this year's holiday without gaining a few pounds. This will be my second healthy Thanksgiving and my first as a vegan.  My first healthy Thanksgiving was in Hawaii and navigating it was a bit challenging but I used a few tips to make sure that I was able to enjoy the holiday guilt free. I think the hardest part was trying to figure out how to honor the old traditions while keeping true to my new healthy lifestyle.  Thanksgiving focuses so intensely on the food and it can be a real challenge…

I broke this up into three different articles because, for me, the race really felt like three different stages for me. There was the starting stage that was filled with excitement and then fear. There was the second stage of pushing through the pain to get past the middle part of the race. And then there was my final test. I had been struggling with a bad run, feeling off ever since mile 3.  I had now been running for over 4 hours with cramped up muscles and a knee injury. There I was, just me and Coach Charlie who had sworn to get me to the bridge, trotting along on the road with no …

So there I was, on my way to line up for the start having to come to terms with the idea that I would be running this race solo.  I wasn't too upset because I knew that there was a chance of me running alone anyway.  There comes a point in your training when your mentors ask you if you've had "the talk" to your running buddies.  The talk is a conversation you have with the people you plan on running the race with, it is the time you decide what the rules are for race day.  We've trained together for months and stuck together through good and bad runs but race day is different.  It is your …

How could it have possibly taken me this long to write about race day? Well at first I didn't write because I needed to rest but then when the time came, I seemed to be at a loss for words.  Race day was the worst run I've ever experienced in my life... there, I said it!   I guess I'll start from the beginning.The day before the race, my mom had come down from Pennsylvania to spend the weekend with me.  She woke up Saturday morning like a kid on Christmas Eve,  I woke up like a pregnant woman in the first trimester!  I was so sick and everything seemed to make me nauseated.  I can't say I …

I woke up this morning like it was Christmas Eve. I was anticipating all of the hustle and busle the next two days were to bring as I gear up for the big day!  I took today off work knowing that there were things to do and excitement to be had and I knew it would be hard to sit at my desk daydreaming about what needs to get done.  Race packets need to be picked up, my mom is coming into town, we have the inspiration dinner with Team in Training and oh... there's race day! This morning, Kaleen (a teammate and neighbor) and I went to the Race Expo to pick up our race packets that included …

On cool autumn race mornings, especially those with long lines to cross the start line, runners bring with them "throw aways."  Throw aways are clothing that are meant to keep you warm until you reach the starting line (sometimes 20 to 30 minutes). Once you reach the starting line, you toss them to the side never to be seen again.  Most races then go back and collect those clothes and donate them to shelters so someone will see them again, just not the runner who threw it out.   I've been planning on finding my "throw away" for race day now for weeks.  I kept saying I was going to stop at the…

No great victory has ever been won without having gone through a great struggle to get there.  Saturday marked the last team practice before race day. For the past 6 months, I have been training to run a marathon with The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training.  On my own personal quest to health and weight loss, I have become a member of a team of people who's mission is to train for endurance sports while fighting the war against blood cancers. In some ways, Saturday was much like every other practice in that we showed up, stretched, signed in, and ran. At the same time, this …

Note to the readers - Let me apologize for the horrible video quality,  I am 5 foot 2 and was stuck in the back  of a very crowded room but I loaded up the video anyway because you don't need to see who's speaking to hear the message and feel the energy of the event. For months I've been waiting for this moment - no I'm not talking about race day... just yet.  Last night was the "Bon Voyage" party for Team in Training.  This is when we receive our race weekend activities information, go over last minute details for race day, celebrate our accomplishments both individually and as a group and …

"Wow that cracker was so satisfying, I think I'm full!" Those are words you will never hear come out of this Fat Runner's mouth, and yet we've convinced ourselves that somehow this could be true- yes I'm looking at you 100 calorie packs. What if I told you one of the biggest keys to my weight loss success was eating more?   People are often shocked at the amount of food I eat and to most, it seems like I never stop eating. They would be correct. From the time I wake up, to the time I go to bed, I've eaten at least six times but more often its about eight.  I am a firm believer in eating small…

What a week!  After getting my head back in the game, I was looking forward to Saturday's team training.  I knew that all it would take is one good run to restore the balance that I was needing.  Unfortunately my Saturday did not go as planned.  I've had some swelling and bruising on my right foot ever since the 20 mile run and I thought my week long absence of running melancholy would have given it plenty of time to rest up but after a mile into the run Saturday morning, the pain was bad enough that I wasn't even walking normally.  I knew I needed to stop or I could risk hurting my ankles, …

A big part of training is setting up rituals and routines.  For five months I've been following the same pattern over and over until it's become second nature.  On Mondays I rest, on Tuesday I do a mid-week medium distance run, on Wednesdays I cross train in something other then running, on Thursday I do another shorter run, on Friday I prepare by resting up for Saturday's long runs and then by Sunday I have a 30 min. recovery run and start the cycle all over again.   Our routines go beyond the running schedule. We also get in the habit of increasing our water intake and carb loading, i.e. …