The First Step

I suppose you could say my love affair with running and walking started when I was twelve years old. I was a geeky, nerdy, awkward, and unpopular fat girl who was crucified pretty much by the student body at large. I wore big plastic brown rimmed glasses and whose fashion sense was well, I had none. I still don't. Only now I don't care. And to be honest the only fashionable item of clothing I ever lusted after was a pair of Nike athletic shoes. Which in all reality were too narrow for my feet. I wouldn't have a decent pair of running shoes until I was 24 years old and had the kind of money to splurge on the kind I read about in Runner's World.

For the most part I am still geeky, nerdy, and awkward, only now I embrace those things about myself. And if I want decent pair of cross trainers I go to Swag's in Auburndale near Iroquois Park in Louisville, KY. Swag Hartel knows shoes and has been known to cut a deal or two in his day for local running community.

But when I was twelve years old my dad, John, (he's my stepdad, but my married him when I was three, and given the kind of dreck she was married to and spawned me and my sister Brandy with, he’s an angel, there will be times I say otherwise, but trust me he really is a good man) picked me up from school one day and on the way to pick mom from work he took me for a walk at Iroquois Park. He told me if I could make it the whole way around (3.1 miles) the loop he would take me to Ehrlers for a frozen yogurt. Healthy right?

Yes. He encouraged me to exercise by dangling what was essentially soft serve ice cream in front my face. As if I would complain. Well, it didn’t take long for him to see just how out of shape I was. I stopped at rate which for him must have seem constantly. But, I do NOT give up easily. I wanted that frozen yogurt. I wanted to prove that I could finish what I started. And even though it took me what seemed like for-freaking-ever I made it to the top of the last hill and eventually finished the loop.

I was tired. Depleted. Exhausted. At times I could not catch my breath and learned there was pain involved in this walking/running thing. I got the frozen yogurt. But more than that—I was hooked.

I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor when it came to walking and running in the flesh. Dad loved it. And whenever I wanted to go he was game. He then introduced me to who would become my favorite source inspiration the columnist in Runner’s World who was simply known as the Penguin. Steve Prefontaine had been a rock star and I loved his bravado and spirit. But John ‘the Penguin’ Bingham became the other John to inspire me.

He called himself a penguin because he said one day he was out jogging and he saw himself as gazelle gliding along in his mind, but happened to catch his reflection in the window one day and realized he looked more like a penguin waddling along. He coined terms such as LSD. Long, slow, distance. I eventually would run the Kentucky Derby miniMarathon which is a benign term for 13.1 miles. I’ve done it a total of six times.

And grabbed the brass ring when I completed my first and only marathon at Walt Disney World, for those don’t know there’s only one distance for a true marathon and that’s 26.2 miles.

The reason for this blog? Three fold. One, to force me to be honest and stay on track. As such I did my first walk, a half mile on Monday after a grueling yet awesome weekend at Imaginarium, a blast of creativity electricity that encompasses the fun of a scifi and gaming convention while melding it with a film festival cross genre (every genre of creative writing) even romance, non-fiction, comic books, screenwriting you name it has it. Well I now have bronchitis and have to heal up before I head out for walk number 2. Two, to possibly create something special that will engage you and inspire you to do something big. Because if I can lose over 150 pounds on the way back to the Walt Disney World Marathon in 2016 you can too. And 3. To chronicle the journey from blog, to memoir, and possibly to film.

I promise to visit the blog at least once a week. And weigh at that time. And that time has come. I currently weigh 302lbs. And hope to shed over half of it by January of 2016. There will be pictures. There will be video. And I invite you to share your thoughts in the comments section.