Marathon Training

That's me in the photo above. By the grace of God I've lost thirty pounds over the past three months. This has included cutting out Coke and ice cream, eating lots of vegetables, and running almost every day. It has not been easy, but I'm thrilled with the results so far.

Back in February I realized that I had to do something about my weight. I had gradually creeped up to over 220 lbs. Although I ran a few times each week, I ate and drank so much junk that it didn't matter. I felt gross and flabby. I could barely fit into my work pants. Yuck.

Like most people in our country, losing weight has never been particularly easy for me. I came to the conclusion that I needed some sort of tangible goal to motivate me to drop the pounds. Therefore, I selected the Savannah Rock 'N' Roll Marathon. I've only run one marathon in my life - and that was over a decade ago; this will be a great challenge.

The only way for me to run 26.2 miles is to get down to a more appropriate weight. I'm currently at 190. Everywhere I've looked says I should weigh about 175. That means I'm already 2/3 of the way to my goal. Sweet!

I'm not going to hyper-spiritualize this endeavor. I'm glad I'm losing weight but don't see it as a huge spiritual issue. As followers of Christ, there are many more important things than being at a healthy weight. That said, I feel much better. For that I'm thankful.

I'll post occasional updates about my marathon training. On Sunday I managed to run nine miles fairly easily. So far my body is holding up under the mileage. As we get closer to the marathon's November date the miles will increase. I hope my joints in particular can withstand the pounding.

Now to find my belt. My work pants keep sagging (and that's a good thing).