2^nd Installment of Born to Run…….

It’s been two years ago this month that I posted my race day report to my 1^st half-marathon. A lot has happened since then. I’ve completed two more half-marathons; another Disney Princess Half and a race in Santa Barbara that can only be described as a torturous 13.1 mile mountain climb. We bought a new house, had our 3^rd baby boy, discovered Mumford & Sons, gracefully survived some heartache and tragedy, and I’ve re-entered the work force as a paralegal in my husband’s law office, completely disregarding the degree I earned in favor of discovering the ever entertaining  law of MS. We are all healthy, happy on average four to five days out of the week, and moving right along in this thing called my Gen X mid-life crisis.

I begrudgingly decided on a second installment to this blog. I recently stopped breastfeeding our newborn, Charlie. This time limiting it to three months instead of the “Oh my God you breastfed how long?” time frame. I’m ready to be active, healthy and set some goals to get rid of the three baby muffin top. This year, we are coming out of the gate swinging. My husband and I, along with some very dear and equally insane friends, have decided to do the full marathon in January 2014 at Walt Disney World.


“But Lisa, you barely made it through the half!?”
“But Lisa, 26.2 is a helluva lot of miles!”
“But Lisa, you like cupcakes and beer too much!”

And I would agree to all of the aforementioned concerns. But I’ve concluded this: It’s now or never. My good friend Buddha says “The trouble is you think you have time.” We don’t. No one does. We are all just aging, procrastinating amoebas who put everything off until tomorrow. We also are unassured of that tomorrow.  I’m 34 and I have a rather large bucket list. And my current life motto is ‘Get busy living, or get busy dying” - Via Shawshank.

So here’s my second mission, should I choose to accept it, which I have or I wouldn’t be wasting our time. Train and actually run in a full marathon. I will keep this blog as my journal. I’ll do this for two reasons: 1) Accountability- wow, the fear of embarrassment is a powerful motivation. The few who read this blog the first go round encouraged me, inspired me, called me out and kept my head in the game. A game I would not have finished had it not been for the accountability factor that this blog provided. The more people aware of my goals, the less likely I am to fail. 2) This blog absolutely helped me emotionally. I accosted some of my personal demons during the training process and writing them down allowed me to explore and overcome some of those issues that had previously led to my failures. It also allowed me to see just how often I thought about Shipley donuts. It was my therapy, my compass, and at times an embarrassment to myself and those around me.

This leads me to the ground rules; Same as last time. 1) Update at least once a week. 2) Be brutally honest. 3) Not apologize for being brutally honest. Many of you that know me readily admit that I lack a verbal filter. At times it has cost me- I’ve lost FB friends just this week due to a difference of opinion and lack of decorum on my part. I lost readers of the last blog due to my oversharing about boobage and bladders.  But that’s the beauty of the 1^st Amendment. I can say what I feel. These are my words, spoken freely and I do not edit. 4) I WILL talk about boobage, bodily functions, curse words and child rearing problems. 5) I will not discuss religion or politics. 6) I’ve invited my husband to contribute on occasion. We are doing this race together and I’ve always secretly wished to have a successful co-blog where he’s like Bill Simmons the Sportsguy who writes crazy good, intelligent long reads and I’m the Sportsgal who only talks about useless things like the Bachelor and trashy girls on trashy television and other really useful topics. Because that’s kind of what we are in real life. He’s the yin to my yang, the Sonny to my Cher, the Kanye to my Kim.

I’m excited about this journey. There are already many plans for the month ahead. I’m starting a kickstarter program through a local cross-fit this week. We have trips and concerts on the calendar, along with a vasectomy and a breast reduction that I cannot convey the amount of excitement I have for. (See? TMI galore)

And so it begins…. Time to pull out the double layers of bras, the body glide, the Stuart Smalley pep talks and reach to the back of my closet for the running shoes. It will be ugly, hard to watch and harder to read, but this will happen, one day, one step, and one cuss word at a time.

Song of the day: “Guess Who’s Back?” – Eminem

Quote of the Day: “Haters gonna hate, potatoes gonna potate.”.- Mallory Davidson