Indeed!

I found this mug a couple months back at my favorite thrift store. The kids and I were updating their wardrobes for the new school year when we stumbled upon this mug...which you can see isn't exactly upright.


They of course INSISTED that I get it.

"You're almost forty mommy!" Gator sweetly reminded me. "You HAVE to get it!"

So now every day I drink my water from this little number. I drink my water before I go on my run, and I drink more when I get back.

Despite the claims of this mug, I have spent most of the last few months trying to become a person who exercises regularly. The assumption that slim people are fit people is made far too often...and in my case it couldn't have been further from the truth. I wasn't fit. I couldn't keep up on a walk with the grannies in my neighborhood when we moved here. If I tried to run, I had a stitch in my side and felt short of breath after just one block. And I had a bad attitude about exercise, too. Not about it's importance, just about me doing any of it.

But I've pressed on...with help from a number of other people, and a few bloggers, too, who've encouraged me to hang in there. And guess what? Slowly, oh so slowly, I'm finding that I'm getting physically fit. Nothing has really changed in terms of my shape. But my lungs are definitely improved, my heart stronger. I have run for over an hour without them stopping me. My main issues now are A) joints and B) stress fractures.

I didn't have any problems until a few weeks ago. I'd been pretty good about going on my run 3-4 times a week for several months, when I somehow developed a stress fracture in my toe. This snagged me for a week, till I found a gym nearby that I could join for $100 a year. It was a worthwhile enough cause that I coughed it up and started using the elliptical and stair machines there to allow the toe to heal.

Three weeks of machine workouts and I was back to the terra firma...and it felt GREAT! I had a layover in Boston, and ran over eight miles along the Charles River in the rain and dark. I loved it. I never thought the phrase "I loved it" in a conversation about running would pass my lips, but it's true. I loved how I could just go and go. I know 8 miles isn't a lot for many people...but for this computer potato who couldn't do a block last spring, it was HUGE.

I got really amped up about the upcoming race after that. I figured 8 miles that night, 10 the next week, 12 the following, and then this weekend, all 13.1 miles in the race. I was DOIN'G IT!

But ever since that night, I've struggled. Knee pain where I never had it before (right ITB). Mild pain starting up in the fractured toe again. I've been slow and uncomfortable. It's been somewhat discouraging, because that run in Boston actually had me thinking I was on my way to becoming a runner! Now I'm thinking I'm just on my way to being someone who exercises regularly. But that's okay. If I can enjoy going out for a 3-4 mile run every other day or so, and keep myself physically fit in the process, I'll have accomplished something important, and I'll be very happy.

So this weekend I'll be hopping on a plane to Long Beach, where I'll participate in my first ever big race. I am excited to be part of the experience. I'll run as much as I can, walk when I can't, and celebrate when I cross the finish line with my sister, who convinced me to do it in the first place.

So my question today is...How about you? Have you managed to supersede a stumbling block in your life? How did you do it? And for you runner types, feel free to share any advice, tidbits or suggestion that would be useful for someone like me. ♥