Day "One"

A little backstory, for myself, if no one else:

I grew up swimming.  It's my passion.  My career is in aquatics, and it's where I have always felt comfortable.  My senior year in high school, after quitting all sports to have social time, I realized I had horrible knees.  By the time I was 20, I had 4 knee surgeries.  One of those didn't take, and will eventually need to be corrected.

Fast forward to 2009.  I shattered my ankle.  I had surgery to fix it.  But realized, in a time I had no insurance, that my surgery did not fix my ankle, only the break.  As pins are displaced, and I learn I have little cartiledge left, I resort to cortisone shots.  I am determined these will be sufficient.  With 24 pins and 2 plates in my legs to hold them together, I want to be more than a swimmer.  I want that runner's high.  I've never ran for fun.

Fast forward two more years.  I get my first "big girl" job.  I meet the man of my dreams.  He's athletic.  I'm broken.  My first big job?  At a YMCA, where I'm surrounded by fitness.  I swear to myself that I will beat out these so-called surgeries I need, the pins that hold me back, and will strengthen my legs to a point where they are unnecessary.  I try to enter races and pick up running again.  I fail each time as I overwhelm myself. 

I have decided I will run the 2013 Walt Disney Marathon...12 months away.  My loving boyfriend is my trainer, as he has already ran a marathon and other races.  My first week in training I slopped through my workouts given to me, pretending to be Superwoman.  If I am to accomplish this, I need to get myself on track and realize my limits.  All of my habits need to change; eating, over-indulging, over-working, etc.  If not, I am doomed to be disappointed just like my earlier attempts to learn to run. 

I can swim for hours; I love the workout.  I am fortunate for this, but I long to be a runner...maybe eventually a triathalete.  I know I have to buckle down and take these workouts more seriously.  I am hoping this will help.  Up tomorrow?  Run 15 minutes.  No distance, no pace.  It's one I've done several times already this year, but this time?  I'll record the whole day and my feelings. 

Only 12 more months until my marathon....

Here is to making me more than a swimmer, but a runner too.  Bum legs and all.