Better late than never right?
I'm Allyson and I've been DISing for a few years now but only found the WISH board in January. I am 38, happily married to Rick (40) for 13+ years. We have 3 kids, Cassidy (10, she'll be 11 in a few days), Kylie (8) and Jagger (6). We live in Massachusetts and I work p/t as an Admin Asst for our church. I do payroll, AP and scheduling and things for my boss the Sr. Pastor. I work 95% from home since we moved about an hour from our church 4 years ago and he begged me to keep working there. It has worked out well and flexible hours and from home make it a really sweet deal for me. DH is Director of a boarding school for boys here where we live.
So I was never athletic, not at all. Artistic, yes, athletic, no. Our best friends and us have Life Lists we made a few years back. We each put down 5 things we wanted to do, the four of us. So on one of our friends lists was "Run a race together". You see they are runners. They have done a triathalon, other races and she did the Boston Marathon about 5 years ago. We, my DH and I, are good couch potatoes. So this suggestion was laughable to us but it was on the list, we had to do it. So I countered with "only if it is at Disney", knowing I would need some serious motivation to accomplish this. They agreed.
So the four of us, sans kids, are now running the Half Marathon in Disney. We'll be in Disney Thurs-Sun and then decided since we all had childcare set up and we were already out why not make it a little longer and celebrate with some relaxing in the Bahamas. So Sun-Thu we are off to Sandals in Nassau. While we are there we (well the girls of the group) decided why not do a little homemade vow renewal ceremony on the beach too? So we are throwing that in there too. So this has become the "Run a race, celebrate all turning 40 soon, celebrate both having 15th anniversaries in 2009, and renew the vows too" trip. We like to pack it in. We each have 3 kids, times to get away don't come easy! LOL!
So back to the running part. In January I started exercising consistantly inside at home on our Gazelle. Then in February I went outside and started the Couch to 5K program. It took me two weeks to do each one week on the program. It was hard to think about running 90 seconds at a stretch. I found the boards, read, got real running shoes, learned, got inspired and kept going. In June DH and I (he's been running too, we sometimes run together but not the majority of the time) did our first ever 5K. It was here in town and was such a personal accomplishment! I had never done anything like before! I finished in 37:40 and did mostly a 6R/2W through the whole thing. I finished 23 seconds behind DH and was 18th out of 20 runners in the 5K. I was pretty close to DLF but I finished!
So now we are running every other day and gearing up to use Bingham's R/W Half training come end of summerish. I don't know what DH is planning for training. He is feeling very discouraged lately, can't seem to get in a groove and find what works for him. I have been doing the 3/2 lately and it seems to be good for me. I have tried to tell him to try it but he doesn't seem to be hearing me! LOL!
So I am excited about this. I am excited that I have stuck with this and that I AM going to do this. All those years of hearing in my head "You can't" have been replaced with "Oh yeah, you CAN!" I may not be the fastest or have the best form but I'm doing things I never thought I could! It's really been an experience and I can't wait to run through that castle!
Oh here is a picture of the kids and I. I took them to Disney in March. DH was off in Ecuador on a work trip and we didn't want to stay home alone!
Whew, did I say I was also a little long winded at times?
Allyson
We live in the "Ocean State" of Rhode Island. And i work PT as a church Admin. Assistant.
