Welcome 2014, starting the year the right way!

Happy New Year everyone.  I hope you all had a fun, safe New Year's eve!  My husband and I had a great night having dinner with some friends and playing games with them and their two teenagers.  we all knew we were getting old when at 11pm, we decided to call it a night.  My hubby and I had been up since 5am as we both worked and it was just too long a day.  It was not fun to realize that not only are we getting old, but we were feeling old as well!

I don't like to make resolutions as to me they are never realistic or defined. ie.  I want to lose weight,  want to exercise more, etc. They are good for some people but I need to be able to set parameters around it so that's what I have done instead.   For my birthday in December my husband got me a medal holder to hold the medals I have been earning from my races, as well as a gift certificate to a local run store.

It reads "Pain is Temporary, Pride is Forever"

This past week, I redeemed that gift certificate for a running clinic.  I have joined the learning to run 10K clinic. 

That's right a 10K clinic!  Besides continuing on my weight loss journey in 2014.  I also set the goal to participate in 14 races. I know crazy!  But that's the goal I have set and barring any injuries I should be able to do it.  So why a 10K Clinic and not a 5k?  I have signed up to do the BMO 8K in May.  With that goal in mind the man at the running store suggested I do the 10K so that I would be completely ready to do it.  Training for a 5k is different then going out there and doing 8K so that's the reasoning behind it.  Whether or not I actually sign up for any 10k races is yet to be seen :)

For the 1st time in my life, January 1st dawned and I was up bright and early and joined about 300 other crazy people for a 5k race in a local park.  It was a cold and foggy morning when I first arrived but before long the fog was rolling out and it was just cold and damp.  But it was a beautiful run!

Motivational sign on the path :D

                                          

Crossing onto the docs that go over the water connecting the paths.

Not quite a full 5K but I'll take it!

I  am so excited to see what 2014 has in store for me.

Fear of chairs.

I've had what I consider to be a slight fear of unknown chairs.  I know to some it sounds dumb, you see a chair, you sit in it what's the problem.  But when you're 300+ pounds, it isn't always that simple.   I have to be thankful that I have never broken a chair that I've sat on.  There are those who have and I think I've come close a time or two, you feel the legs spreading a little bit and I jump up and say I've been sitting all day, thanks I'd rather stand!

Often at outdoor events, barbecue's, gatherings that sort of thing I would often stand, or lean against something rather than sit.  I didn't want to be responsible for breaking someones lawn chair.  I would be mortified to do so!  Those little canvas chairs that push together and you carry around like a back pack, yeah, I've never sat in one of those, although I figured if it didn't break, it would take a crane to get me up and out of the darned thing.  I've felt uncomfortable sitting on some chairs in restaurants, and at other peoples houses

I have a severe fear of folding chairs.  You know the type that most rec centres have, the grey or blue ones that fold out and and you can stack them 50 high.   I've always been afraid to use them, a girl in high school who wasn't heavy had one break on her and I felt her pain and mortification.  I could imagine that happening to me and being teased mercilessly for it.

I sat down in a folding chair recently while volunteering at a trade show without even thinking about it.  Until I was sitting down, then I remembered when I was volunteering at the same event last year, I wanted to sit, I was tired, my feet hurt, my back was aching and I was miserable.  I sat in the chair for all of 30 seconds, because I could feel how wobbly the legs were and I was afraid of the chair going down, taking me with it. 

It seems like such a little thing, being able to have a seat when and where you want to doesn't it.  I'm so glad that I can now do that without thinking about it.  Without being worried about whether or not the chair would hold me.