As I mentioned before, in the days leading up to the CIM , I was extremely nervous and emotional. I can't tell you when I did something that scared me so much. I really can't. But I faced that fear. Early that Sunday morning, as the rain and wind beat against the house, I got my stuff together and prepared to start, and hopefully finish, my first marathon. Fortunately, I wasn't alone at the start. My friend Paula (whom I had run several races with during the year, including the NWM half marathon in SF ) was just crazy enough to try a marathon with me. So our beloved husbands dropped us off on that dark, stormy morning, armed with their love and encouragement, as well as our rain ponchos, sports goo, etc.. We were dropped off about a mile from the start and I will say that the weather was crazy awful. As we climbed out of the car, we were immediately greeted by the heavy wind and rain. We pushed towards the growing mass of runners and long lines of port-a-potties (an unfort...

Here I am! I did survive my first marathon on December 2, 2012! I am officially a marathoner! Yay! For those who have been wondering, I am sorry I left you hanging for so, so long. December brought some unexpected distractions and I feel like I'm just realizing its January, even though we're over half way through it. Yikes. Nonetheless, here I am 1-1/2 months later and 26.2 miles further into the amazing journey that is my life. As I left off , I grew increasingly nervous as I got closer to the California International Marathon ( CIM ). Not only had my training not gone as plan due to injury (aka IT Band issues ), but the weather became a huge factor. In past years, the CIM would generally fall on a cool, crisp day, but no such luck for me. It was stormy, wet weather with 30-50 mph winds. I must have checked the weather forecast hundreds of times in the days leading up to it, hoping to see a calmer forecast (and I swear when I went to bed the night before, the forecast was cal...

I am about to embark on a new adventure and I'm both excited and nervous. I am joining my beloved friend and life coach, Tiffany Han , on a 30 Day Social Media Rehab . For 30 days, I will be unplugging myself from Facebook and reconnecting with myself. My reason for making this commitment is not because I lose hours to Facebook daily (although weekly could be a different story), but because I continue to fall victim to comparison gremlins. Even though I just wrote a blog post about not comparing ourselves because we are all special and different, I still find it difficult to remember this at times. And Facebook just gives me too much material for comparison. In the past, it's mainly been about my creativity and productivity, but at this point I'm also comparing myself as a runner. In training for my first marathon (the CIM , quickly approaching on December 2nd), I've unfortunately learned that training doesn't always go as planned. So I'm feeling under prepare...

I know I missed Marathon Monday this week and I promise I'll get back to the story where I left off last week . But today I am going to skip ahead to tell another story in my marathon training saga. A long story. This past weekend I ran a half marathon at the Nike Women's Marathon (NWM) in San Francisco which was my second half marathon. It was an incredible experience, both the race and the process it took to get there. The NWM is a huge race (25,000 runners) with a huge reputation for a beautiful course, San Francsico hills, and Tiffany's & Co finisher's necklaces handed out by fireman dressed in tuxedos. As big as it is, it can take some work to enter the race. For many of the spots, there's a lottery held early in the year. And I'll be honest, I didn't know this race existed when the lottery occurred. But as I learned more about running, I learned about more races and this one popped up. At first, I was far too intimidated by the thought...

It's Marathon Monday again and it's time to get back to my story after last week's interruption . You may remember I left off with the Couch to 5K program and getting "hooked" on running. While completing the nine week program, I actually started enjoying running for the sake of running which helped me complete the program and then continue running. After I completed the program at the end of June last year, I decided I should actually find a 5K to run. It had never been my goal in the beginning, but it seemed a natural next step in my journey. So I found a local 5K for a cause near and dear to my heart: my first 5K was the Race for the Arts . It was a wonderful experience, so I decided to run two more, one being a 5K marking the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 and the other a 5K to raise money for ovarian cancer (a cause dear to a friend).The races were fun and rewarding, and I really could have done more, but with the holidays approaching we just didn't have t...

I realize that the other day , I was a bit vague. I wrote about the "stories" we often tell ourselves, but I didn't really share my specific "stories." I shared examples of my rewritten stories such as my running and weight-loss, but I didn't share any of my current "stories." Stories of things I've always thought were impossible to change. Things I thought were "just me." "That's just the way I am." And you know why I didn't share? I was scared. I was scared to admit them and face the possibility that things could be different. But I am going to share. So many little things lined up that I need to share. The other day, I came to realize that I've spent a lifetime telling myself one story that I've never, ever considered questioning-- I am shy and quiet . But do I have to be shy and quiet? Do I need to be fearful of speaking in front of people? I can change that if I want to? My head is spinning. Ima...

Red Typewriter by Mandy Lynne Are you a storyteller? I am discovering that I am. Now, I don't mean the kind of storytelling I started on Monday on with the Marathon Mondays . Not the kind where you are retelling a great adventure or sharing an interesting experience with a friend. Or the kind of stories that you might tell your children about knights and princesses and dragons, etc. I mean the made-up "stories," or lies, you tell yourself, like "I can't do ____, because I'm not _____." Earlier this week, thanks to Tiffany and an eye-opening conversation, I began to realize that I am quite the storyteller. I often tell myself "stories" about things that aren't necessarily true. For instance, I used to tell myself I couldn't lose weight because it's too hard or I couldn't be an athlete because I'm not coordinated. But I finally recognized these things as untrue "stories" so now I've lost 40lbs and I...