Goals Met, Inspiration Found, and Future Planned

As many of you know I have been training for a marathon since December. I met my first goal in my training this weekend with the men seen in the picture above (Carlos, Ryan, and Justin). This was Justin, Ryan, and my first half marathon; its amazing to reach goals with friends and especially your husband. Some may think that they could never run 13.1 miles and there were times where I definitely thought I would never get there. You definitely have to put your whole heart into it. It takes time and dedication to reach goals, but if you put all you have into it you can do anything that you dream of. My time was better than I thought it would be, but I definitely have a long way to go to reach my goal pace. The boys did incredible and I am so proud of each of them. To think that we all burned around 1700 calories was a great feeling. If you ever want to run a  half marathon or marathon I would definitely recommend this one. Many people say that running is boring, which can be true, but this run was gorgeous. We ran down the battery and up king street (lots of amazing stores) and then back down through a water front park. The history of Charleston was seen all through the run which kept it interesting.  If I had just been running for the fun of it I would definitely taken pictures along the way. Here are a few pictures from the race:

This was on the way to the race in the car.

Right before the start line :)

When we finished our first half!!

After the race was over we saw a man with an incredible t-shirt on that said, "13.1 still easier than chemo". Of course it brought about a lot of questions. His wife had died of cancer back in August and now his daughter is running 12 half marathons in 12 months to raise money for  VCU Massey Cancer center. For those of you that know me  you know that cancer is my passion. I one day want to have my dream job which is working with children with cancer. This organization really touched my heart so I wanted to share it with all of you to make sure we give/ pray for a cure for cancer. It affects so many people and we need to find a cure for this terrible disease. We all have been affected by cancer in our lives. I personally have seen it all in my family and friends, beginning with myself being diagnosed with Melanoma back in 2007. My grandmother died of Leukemia and my sister in law's sweet mother just passed about this past year with pancreatic cancer. Team up with me to stop this terrible disease. www,stilleasierthanchemo.com

This past weekend proved to me that I definitely need to do more than just running to increase my time and pace for my marathon. My sweet friend Mallory told me about an amazing workout challenge to do and I wanted to share it with all of you. The website is called www.toneitup.com . There are workouts on there for every day and also nutrition plans. Everyday you check in for your workout through posting a picture on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. There is a community page where you can find friends or people in your town or state to keep you accountable. Today will be my first day with this and of course I still have my running plan. So for you that tell me you do not know what to do in the gym this would be good for you to try. It also has youtube videos to watch if you are not 100% sure what an exercise is and it will show you how to do it. Find me on there and we can be encouragement to each other.

Thank you for all your support with my Marathon training. I could not do it without all of the encouragement from you guys. Spread the word about my blog :)