12 Weeks...LIVING BIG

Earlier this week I posted a the photo below on my 52 Canvases Blog.  Yep.  These are my tennis shoes.  What on earth are my tennis shoes doing here in the blog?  Glad ya asked!

Do you have any little dreams, or big ones you don't dare speak of for fear of being made fun of?  Or better yet, you just figure why bother mentioning it because it's never gonna happen anyways?  Heck, I've been known not to share things when I know they are other people's mondo dreams as well.  Because if their dream becomes a reality before mine I don't want them to feel like they can't be truly joyful around me.  I truly believe that joy is deserved by all and that everything happens in the time it's supposed to. 

Like the tattoo...I have some dreams that are kind of silly, while others are BIG.  And to me, this is a biggie.  So the shoes.  I've been a runner my whole life it seems.  I can still remember the day my Dad started running regularly.  I was in awe that he could set out on a course and just run.  We lived on Virgina Drive then, so I had to be 5 (all my life memories I can pinpoint age by the house we were in since there were SO many..haha....).  I'd watch him leave and come back looking energized and excited.

He always ran in the Vulcan Run on Thanksgiving Day in Birmingham.  It was a 10K back then with a 2 mile fun run.    Below is ME in my very first Vulcan fun run.  I really, really wish someone had told me to NOT pin the dang number so the purple velour jacket couldn't be removed.  I was dying in that non wick fabric!  Not sure the year, but I look about 9.   And since then I've been a novice runner.

In college I vividly remember when I started running regularly.  One of my best friends Denise, (She's my friend who died last year of a heart malfunction) drug me to the coliseum.  Those of you that attended Auburn know this place for basketball, gymnastics and graduation.  But during the week at night, it was a running heaven full of crazy running people like me!!  We'd run laps, stairs, laps more stairs then run back home.  I was hooked.  I'd run to the Pike house to see Billy, then run back.  I'd run all over campus.  Heck, I took running for credit.  Who does that?  But I never really ran any races.  And I'm not very fast.

Since being married running has always been my go-to stress reliever.  At the old house Billy and I got up at the crack of dawn and ran together.  Below was my last race.  A 5K in 2010.  I was so excited, and it was just 3.2 miles.

Ok.  I am 40 now.  And realizing some of the silly dreams I don't talk about...well it's just plain old silly that I don't do something about them!  So I did it.....and training for my first half Atlanta Marathon started this week.  13.1 here I come!!  And soon after 26.2.  Oh geesh.  I just did it.  Shared my DREAM!!  So wish me luck along the way.  I've actually been scheming this since March.  I started a regular running routine to be sure I was up for it, and now the date is set.  OCTOBER 7th, 2012.  I'd love to have you at the finish line.....here's the link to where!!  Of course, I'll be letting ya know more then.  For now I'm mapping routes, gathering better running clothes, had my shoes fitted with $175 orthopedics (I know...but better than surgery on my dancing feet) looking for monkey butt....that may be TMI, no?  And getting very, very motivated.  It's funny, before this week I ran easy without much thought.  Just did it cause it felt good.  Now there is a purpose.  And already I'm running faster.  Cool.  Oh geesh...13.1 miles!!!!!