Guest Blogger Judy N., -an inspiration

We told you we'd have some new "team mates" posting and here is our first of many more to come. Judy N. is an inspiration and we love her story!

Hi.

I'm a 52 year old woman who's recently gotten back into running after quite some time. I haven't done any serious running since I was 25 and as I got older and heavier I never intended to do it again. But this year, after losing 28 pounds, I decided that I wanted to run a triathlon. So I strapped on my trainers and ran up the road for exactly 10 minutes and 48 seconds before I felt like I was going to collapse right there. Not much of a start.

But I kept at it, and I got so I was looking forward to it. Being able to listen to my favorite songs on my MP3 player made it fun. Pretty soon I was running two miles and then three miles.

As it turned out, the triathlon fell by the wayside. I didn't have a chance to swim in open water and I am not that fast at cycling. The event held locally in Wilmington requires everyone to finish in two hours and 15 minutes, and that just wasn't going to happen.

So I did the next best thing. I entered the Wilmington NC Tri-Span Race (it does have "tri" in the title just like "tri"athlon).

I finished the 5K race with a time of 37:53. My goal was 1) to run the entire race without stopping to walk, which I did, and 2) not to come in last, which I also managed to pull off, finishing 72nd out of 92 females, and I placed second in the 50-54 age group Only 16 seconds separated me from the first place finisher, so if I'd pushed a little harder, I could have won my category.

I can't wait to run another race. I love the feeling when everyone starts out together and everyone cheers. And I'm at the point in life where they give me a prize for showing up.

Judy N.
Wilmington, NC

Thanks for sharing Judy. Do you have a story to share? We'd love to hear it!