Monday, January 26, 2009

Julianne

After reading Maritza, Aron, Tara and Kristin's intros below... I'm so thankful to be part of this awesome group. It's not everyday you find a group of women who share the love of running also have so many common threads. We are really lucky to have each other!!

I will always remember my first marathon back in the summer of 2005. The San Francisco Marathon was a race that I signed up for with much fear and nervousness. I really didn't know what it took to run a marathon. I looked up "marathon training programs" on Google and came across the Hal Higdon novice training program. I tried to stick to it as much as I could but training alone (and using the internet as a guide) definitely has it's limitations. I told my friends to show up at the finish line at a certain time and ended up finishing an HOUR earlier than expected! I was surprised to find myself finishing the marathon at 4:14:42. I've run 3 more SFMs since and looking forward to my 5th SFM this year. I hope I can PR again this year but just thankful that I am able to participate again.

Running a marathon was on my bucket list of things to do for a long time. I just never thought I'd be running so many of them since my first one. I used to run cross country in high school but it was never because I was passionate about running. (There was a boy involved!) It wasn't until much later I really appreciated the art of running and the heart to finish a marathon. I first started running to lose excess weight. It first started out a mile here and there on the treadmill. When I was able to run a whole mile without stopping, I knew I wanted to run further. And that's how the story goes. 1 mile somehow led to 26+ miles! Running has given me more self confidence, love for exercise, great friends and an outlet for angst, stress, among other things! 40 lbs down, 6 marathons and 4 years later, I still love running and looking for more.

Honestly, I have never run so much but loving every minute of it so far. Running has led me to blogging, which led me to wonderful ladies of ROHO and other runners from all over the world! I am looking forward to more running, more races, more friends... and well, more personal records. Yay for our first race this weekend at Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon! I think we're expecting quite a few PRs!

11 comments:

Marathon Maritza said...

I agree, you don't find this every day. :)

Seriously, you are such an amazing runner! Yay for KP this weekend!!!

jen said...

So you and Maritza are officially the marathon vets of the group! I ran my first marathon in 2005 also.

I love the story of finishing an hour ahead of your planned time. :O That's amazing!! Here's to surprising yourself even more in '09! :)

Chic Runner said...

Ah I love it! You girls are so cute and I'm so glad I was introduced to you all from the blogland :)

Chic Runner said...

PS. I want to be a roho honorary little sister. ha ha :)

Aron said...

you are so awesome and so inspiring, always soooo positive and upbeat!!! i am SO happy that we have met this year and become running partners AND even more so friends. cant wait to see you cross ALL those marathon finish lines in 2009!

Alisa said...

Awwww...I love this group!

Move ovah Chic Runner...I wanna be honorary member too =).

Anonymous said...

I'm reading! Someday I want to go for a run with the ROHOs. :)

Thomas Bussiere said...

It always feels great when you do better then you thought you could. That's how I started. Have you considered running an Ultra? Just when you thought 26.2 was the limit - The human body can do so much more but often limited by the mind! You have a good attitude with running.
TAB

RunningLaur said...

You guys are so cute.
Have a great time at your race this weekend!

bloomers shoppe said...

I think you guys need to have individual pictures with your names so we know who all of you are. :)

K @ Running Through Life said...

Great intro!!! Now, you guys need to come back to the Sac area (or north east bay) and run with me!!! Seriously!!! Hah!