Then and Now- the 2011 edition

For the sake of this post, then encompasses 2000-2008 and now is 2008 onward. Ok.. Glad we got that squared away.  I was athletically active from the time I was about 6, maybe before. I played year round soccer, basketball and later softball. After high school and college, I became a runner and then a triathlete (to pacify this swimming coach at the gym I went to who regularly told me I had promise) and then a runner again.

There are a few things I know about myself. I often compare myself to myself at other points in time and realize that is not healthy. I am extremely competitive against myself and I push myself way harder than a human should be pushed.

I had a pretty severe bicycle accident in 2006/7 when I was training for Ironman Wisconsin. It resulted in 18 procedures/surgeries and the finale was the loss of my right kidney. I was hit by a car and needless to say, my road biking/triathlon career ended at that precise moment... that is fine with me. It was then. It was at a time.  My CF spiraled out of control from that point until now (simply just meaning the last 2 weeks) and I was unable to re-reach that physical fitness, but I've never lost hope that I will one day run 6x a week. As they say, "Every journey must start with a single step." (I did not coin that phrase, and I'm   sure I got it wrong, but credit where credit is due.) Today I no longer want to be 5% body fat. Today I want to be happy.

That all being said. I LOVE with all my heart and soul, to run. I love the motion, the speed (or lack of speed as these days would have it), the sweatiness, the dried salt all over my body, the mental clarity...

I Love to Run.

I went through the archives (then) to reminisce and I was thrilled that I had that time, then... but you know... I am much happier and stronger now. 


The following photos are circa 2004-2007

Those are all pretty cool pictures to have in my scrapbook.. but wait.. look at this joy

This is me now (today actually) happily propelling forward in some motion... I guess until you can't do something you don't realize how happy you really are doing it.

I am blessed because I can breathe.