So I Lost My Mind .....

..... and signed up to run/walk the Nike Women's Half Marathon. It will be held in San Francisco in mid-October.

Now, if you have known me at all during the past 15 years, then you know I hate to run. I can literally count on one hand the number of times I have gone running since high school:

1. The timed mile run in freshman year gym class.
2. Once with my brother while he was training for his Navy PT test.
3. Once after I got mad at my mom for making a comment about my weight. {Why do moms do this?!?!}

All of these runs had the same end result: pain and misery. I had pretty much made up my mind that I would never be a runner and I was fine with it.

So what made me lose my mind? I blame the Nest. Specifically, there was a group of OC Nesties that recently ran the LA Marathon. Reading about their experiences was awe-inspiring to me. One of the runners from that group started getting a group together for the Nike half-marathon and shortly thereafter I lost my mind. But as it turns out, I had a few good reasons for signing up:

• It would force me to get off of my lazy, rapidly expanding ass and actually do cardio.
• It will likely help me in my mission to lose 25 pounds of post wedding "happy weight" that is actually making me quite sad. =(
• It would (hopefully) expand my social circle.
• It gives me a legit purpose to take time off for a long weekend in San Francisco.
• The finisher's medallion is a Tiffany & Co. necklace. Jewelry is a great motivator.

I had intended to start training last week, using the Couch to 5K program because I am far too out of shape to attempt some of the other half-marathon training programs that are out there. Unfortunately, I came down with a cold and cough, so training is pushed back to next Monday. Oddly enough, I'm looking forward to it. I bought new workout clothes this past weekend and will be getting fitted for a pair of shoes this upcoming weekend.

I'm sure I will be bitching about running shortly, but in the meantime I'm pretty psyched about the whole thing. :-)