Inbetween races the lifting began

I was following my schedule very religiously and was continuing on my progress to become a healthier individual. At this time I injured my hamstring and thought I could just push through it. It came to the point where it hurt more the next day after running to were I could barely walk. During this time I laid off some of my longer runs which I was hoping to be around 6 miles. My roommates and best friends were into lifting and that was something I used to do in high school, so I figured I would get back into it. I bought the pre-workout supplements with the creatine and other energy boosters to help you gain weight in your exercises becoming much more stronger. As working out became more of an interest I saw running take a back seat. I was seeing muscles I had never seen before in areas that were just flab three months earlier. At this point I weighed 180 and was getting more compliments than I thought I deserved. I had lost 45 pounds and saw a difference in my body and confidence but I wasn't were I wanted to see myself. I wanted the vascularity and abs that I saw in my friends and was determined to get it.

The first race

It was race day and I was more excited than I ever thought I was going to be. As I stretched out getting ready for the run my dad gave me some advise. Him being a military man his whole life he knew from PT tests that the young guys who bolted out of the starting gate normally gassed themselves out and were walking by the end. He told me to remember my pace and not to get caught up in the other runners at the start. We started the race and my dad and I stayed together for about the first mile and a half then the hills got to me. I started walking as I saw my dad take off into the distance. One of the most important lessons I have learned from running is to not walk. No matter how slow your run comes to, do not walk. It throws you off and you are destined to walk again once you start running. I continued on my run and tried to push through the hills. Finally I was on the home stretch and was battling a guy back and forth trying to keep a good pace to finish it out. My dad finished with a 39 minute time and I came across the line at 43. My first run and I got creamed but my old man. After the race we saw all of the activities after and we got the bananas and other treats that they hand out and I  had finally received my first T-shirt for running an event. Oh was I proud. Fueled by the adrenaline my dad and I signed up for another race a month later this time a 8k just over 5 miles, I had my revenge race to show him up.

Gearing up for the first race

I had arrived back in Tucson and with all the excitement from my sisters and brother in laws half marathon I had watched I was ready to continue training. At this time I was stepping up my runs to just over 3 miles and was finishing in just about 30 mins. I remember running one time and finishing it in 27 minutes which to me was such a break through. One of the best parts of running besides the weight loss is how easy it is to see improvement. For me I was always loosing weight as long as I kept running and stayed on a schedule. But what schedule is the right one? I contacted my sister and tried to see what they did in order to stay on track and how they increased the distance over time. She referred me to a man called Hal Higdon. He is the Author of many running books and has just an infinite amount of knowledge when it comes to running. I went to his website to look at the training schedules he had to try and fit one to my goals. He had more than I could of possibly known of. Numerous distances with different types of skill ranges. So I chose the marathon training schedule in order to achieve my pipe dream of running one. This was now September and I had finally chosen a race that I was going to do. My first race was in Sabino Canyon and was described as a real hill climber. It was a 4 mile run which I felt I was prepared for. It was to take place in October so I had some time to get ready. My dad seeing my weight change also got motivated and started running as well, he too signed up for the same race. As we put the bibs that you receive on the fridge as a reminder to train hard and not slack off the reality of it all was coming together. A week from race day we went in to the store that was holding all of the packets you need to run the race, we were informed that the bridge had collapsed and that they added an extra half mile to the run. Good thing I had been training up to 5 miles now.

The First Few Months

In my town of Oro Valley, a suburb of Tucson, Arizona there are many places where you can run. It is very friendly to bikers and to runners of all kind whether you want to run on roads or go off onto a trail. My first distance that I started at was only 1.89 miles. It was a loop around my neighbor hood that I had ran before but not at all recently. I ran with my favorite music and a pair of old Nike's that I had that would get the job done. the first run I couldn't even make it to a mile without having to stop. It was so disappointing considering I had played soccer my whole life which all you do was run. After I walked maybe 100 yards to catch my breathe I started again all the way back to my house maybe .95 of a mile finishing my run. I was in for a long trip if i could only finish a mile. After talking to my brother in law and figuring out how to change my body and make it look the best and how I wanted it to be he told me that running completely changes your bodies physic. He is one of the smartest people I know so I trusted him and continued running. After the first week of running 5 times a week I noticed that I had lost 10 pounds and was looking better than before. My family and I went on a trip to flagstaff which is much higher in elevation the next month where I found myself running still hoping the added altitude would help me in my conquest. After a week of hard transitioning to the altitude, my dad and I went to visit my sister in her new house in Albuquerque. I was very excited to show my sister the progress I had made in running. I was at that time able to run up to 2 miles with out stopping at what I thought was a good pace. Oh what a surprise I faced on the first day in New Mexico as I joined my sister and her husband for a morning run. Running up and down hills on dirt and loose sand kicked my butt to the point that I had stopped and was walking within the first mile. So much for impressing them like I had wished for. To add to it they were running in a half marathon that weekend where I got my first site of how a race day would look like and all the goodies you receive from just running. I was hooked, when I returned home I knew that I had to sign up for my first race.

How and Why I started

In August of 2010 I weighed 225 and was 22% body fat. Now that isn't too bad considering the nations average and the obesity charts we can look up now.  According to those charts I was a 5ft 11in Male in the average zone between 18-24%. I was a 19 year old kid who did not at all feel average though. I unfortunately do not have any photos when I was at my heaviest but I do however have four photos that were taken when I was at 210. I took these photos because I wanted to look like the 290x guys and success stories that we all see on TV late at night. The problem with these programs is that when you are over weight and aren't use to working out or doing cardio the videos whether they say go at your own pace or not make you feel worse then you already did. Having to constantly pause the tapes or not completing the same repetitions as the guys and girls on the video can make it very frustrating. So after a month of trying the videos I gave up not seeing the improvement on my body that I had wished to see. My alternative came to me from a sibling rivalry from my oldest sister. She and her husband had completed a marathon about a year before and I had just gotten back from a trip with them were I saw that they had changed their whole eating and living habits many months after the race. On the car ride home I made a promise to myself that I was going to start running to complete a pipe dream marathon goal by my 21st birthday. The Journey began.