Signed up for my FIRST 5K

 Last summer I used MapMyRun app to keep track of my walking times and worked at getting better.  When I first started exercising/walking April 2012, I could NOT even walk 3 miles under an hour.  Then by the end of summer I gave my best time.  I walked 3.1 miles in 40 minutes and some secounds. I DID IT! I worked so hard to reach 3.1 miles in 40 minutes. That was the goal Julia had given me. When I first started walking it almost seemed unattainable.  My friend Julia had helped me start my quest to healthier living when I did the 24 day challenge with Advocare.  Julia measured and weighed me in. During those 24 days I lost 14 pounds and crazy amount of inches- seriously like over 10 inches.....I need to look those stats up agian. If you can't tell from those stats, ADVOCARE products are VERY AWESOME.

So I decided that since I've been doing these Insanity exercises for almost a month now, and the sun has started to shine and weather is just starting to finally warm up, I headed out for my first walk/jog of the year last night.  I was so geeked to see how the Insanity training would affect my walking.  When I did my walking last spring and summer, we were on the Heartland trails which are totally flat-no incline what so ever.  But yesterday, we walked those miles around part of Crystal Lake and it is up and down and it just seemed so hard! I went with my sister Gina and friend Tara Johns. They were so much faster than me. But I decided to do "my own challenge" and seeing them ahead of me motivated me to try to catch up or at least not finish bad. I wanted to cry at one point thinking "This body is too big to move and this is just crazy for me to be doing." 

I finished my first walk/jog yesterday 3.09 miles in 42 minutes and some secounds.  At first I was disappointed but then I reminded myself of this

1. It was my first walk/run since October 2012
2. I am starting my walking season at a much better time than I did last spring.  Like 20 minutes faster!!! OH YEAH!!
3. I am making progress in my health daily with all the little things that I am INTENTIONALLY committing to God and to myself to do and you can measure it.
4.  I can walk faster and farther since last year April 2012. 


So I signed up for my FIRST 5K. 
 http://www.edzone.net/~ricahoon/Maple%20Syrup%20Run/mapleindex1.html
Just a little local 5K that I can get my feet wet. And what's cool is that I'm doing it with the friends that I've been doing the Insanity exercises with.  Some of them are doing their first 5K too at this Maple Syrup Festival.

I was told about the Color Run http://thecolorrun.com/grandrapids/ and thinking that this would be such a FUN thing to do with my family.  But right now just one step at a time and we'll see what happens at my first 5K.

This picture of me and my girls reminds me how much I have to live for.  But to live fully and wholly and with all the strength and stamina I have for God and for them.  I want them to see that every day we should strive to work to better ourselves for God and His glory.

And that our life was meant to be challenging, but that we are capable.

Cherishing the life given me and being confident in that nothing we face is too difficult.

HAPPY FRIDAY FRIENDS!