Weight Off My Shoulders
Join Me on My Journey

Learning To Run WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

And the winners are:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That’s right, Brad was so excited about the giveaway he let me pick not 1, but 5 winners!! YAY! Congrats to you all and thanks to everyone that entered!!

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For most of my life, I HATED running … like would do anything to avoid running or even jogging for that matter.

I disliked running so much that I tried to play sports that involved the least amount of running — catcher in softball, setter in volleyball and defense in lacrosse, to name a few.

But then something changed. I REALLY wanted to lose weight and figured running would be a good way to burn calories.

So in January 2005, I took the plunge.

I started by running 1/2 a mile a few times a week at the gym treadmill during the first week of January.

In the second week of that month, I ran – okay jogged – 3/4 a mile a few times a week.

Each week I worked on upping my mileage by just 1/4 of a mile. I felt that was a doable amount.

Did I really know what I was doing? Not so much. I was winging it.

I had many friends and family members that were runners, but felt like such a loser that I didn’t really ask them for advice.

And when I started running there wasn’t a social media group I could turn to for advice.

So I just did the best I could come up with.

I started my journey in January 2005 and ran my first 5k in March 2005 (38:21). It was fun and my dad ran with me the entire time. Thankfully my dad ran with me for most of the first races I completed.

We kept it going until I ran my first half marathon (Hyannis Half) in February 2006 (2:20:18) and my first full marathon (Clarence De Mar) in September 2006 (5:59:27).

But, I was undertrained for that marathon. I again didn’t have anyone to turn to for advice so I just searched the internet and tried to use a training program to help. However, during the training period I got injured – IT band – so I was still nursing the injury and ill-prepared for that full marathon and it showed in the results. I walked for probably 6-7 miles of that 26.2 miles, but I finished.

Then promptly stopped running … for years.

Yup that’s right. I started running for about 21 months and then gave it up.

I finally gave it another shot in June 2011  and this time I reached out to friends and social media for help.

Now, I have sounding boards for racing tips, training schedules and learning how important cross training really is.

And I couldn’t be happier! Having the help and support of knowledgable runners can make all the difference.

So that brings me to the GIVEAWAY!

My twitter friend and the creator of the #7daychip, Brad Gansberg, has graciously offered up his services to one lucky reader!!

Brad is a running coach and offers a couple different services through his website.

For this giveaway, he is allowing me to give away one Basic membership ($99 value) to his Running 101 program: