New Compititon

Hello!!! So for everyone that doesn't know me (which is pretty much everyone but my mom and Sarah, and I did meet Karilynn once), I will tell you all a little about me. I am the mom of 5 kids, 2 girls and 3 boys ages ranging for 11 to 2. They keep me pretty busy, I was working on my bachelor's in Chemistry when I had my last kid, and than we moved 10 days later, so that has been put on hold for a little bit. My husband is active duty Air Force, so we get to move around quite a bit, which is nice. I absolutely love being a military family (minus the deployments of course). Right now we are stationed at Offutt, NE. Not the most exciting assignment, but certainly not the worst either. The best thing about the military is their emphasis on fitness. Not only do we have free fitness center access (to an amazing gym none the less) but we also have fitness classes, personal trainers, a heath and wellness center (it has healthy cooking classes plus access to nutritionists) and the gym here sponsors about one 5K a month. So one day I was thinking about all of these great tools that I have to aid me on my journey to weight loss, and I was wondering how I got to the point I am at all. If through out the 10 years that my husband has been in the military, I had bothered to really take advantage of all of these programs, I wouldn't even be in this situation. But alas due to my love of food and lovely genetics, I am here, but the good news with all of this is that I have started using most of the great tools that I have. I go to the gym at least 5 days a week(when it is too cold to run outside), I have gone to some healthy cooking classes and I have run every 5k that the base has put on lately with either my oldest 2 kids or my husband. It has really been a lot of fun having them go with me. About 2 years ago, I was really frustrated and talking (probably actually more like whining) to my husband about how I can never seem to reach the weight goals that I set for myself, and he said I don't care what your weight is, I think you look great now, if you want to set a goal, set a fitness goal instead. So he challenged me to beat him at his military fitness test. He has to run a mile and a half in less than 15 minutes (he does it in 12). He knows me so well, I never back down from a challenge. So I started running, and sadly I have yet to race him, but I have completed 2 half marathons, and I kept pace with him without any problem during the 5k we ran in the middle of December. So far I have lost 50 pounds since I started running, 35 of them from the last competition I did, so that has been amazing. My goal for this competition is to lose the last of my weigh which is 10 possibly 15 more pounds, I certainly won't weigh 110 again like I did in high school, but my doctor said any less isn't healthy for me, so I feel inclined to follow his advise. This year I would really like to run a full marathon, but I'm not sure I will be able to train for it. It will be very time consuming and with 5 kids, I just am not sure. Training for my half's I have had the kids with me, the older 3 on their bikes, and I push the younger 2, but I never had them go on my long runs. This year my husband will be deployed and I will have to take all of them on all of my runs, and they will be longer training for a full. I'm not sure about pushing 70 pounds worth of kids (plus the weight of a stroller) for 14 miles, or making my other kids bike quite that far, so we will see. Maybe I will run the half here in Omaha again this year, and pick a different full to run later on in the year. I would also like to run the slacker half marathon this year in Georgetown, CO. It is a half that is all downhill which just sounds like fun to me. Anyway, that is a lot about me and a lot for anyone to read, but I am really excited about this new competition, and wish everyone participating the best of luck!!!! Also, thank you sooooooo much Karilynn for organizing this and putting it together for us!!!!!!