Ragnar 2013

For 2 years I haven't been able to run.  When we lived in Florida I had this overwhelming need to become healthy.  I had always joked that I would start running when I had a track in my backyard and when we bought our home we literally had a track in our backyard.  We backed onto a school and didn't have a fence.  We had a track and a tennis court in our backyard and when I graduated with my Masters I decided that the time had come to make use of this gift and start running.

I began slowly and then all of the friends decided to do something crazy and sign up for a race.  Most of us signed up for a half marathon and 2 of them decided to run a full marathon. In one year the majority of us went from never having run before to completing long distance races.  It was amazing and I became addicted.  I LOVE running!

I've always struggled with back issues, but when we moved to Canada 4.5 years ago something happened.  Maybe it's because Justin and I did all of the unloading of our van by ourselves, who knows, but I threw my back out worse than I had ever done before that.  I couldn't move.  I had a hard time recovering from it all and never really did.  I got it good enough to run another half marathon and shortly after that it went out again. I tried therapy after therapy after therapy and I know how to maintain my back now, but I have to be VERY careful.  If my back goes I cannot take care of my kids.  If my back goes I cannot even take Evan to the bathroom or get him out of bed.

I didn't think that I would ever be able to run again and yet lately (after years of TLC) i was starting to feel more strength in my back.  I felt like just maybe I could try running again.

Long story short .... I can run successfully again.  Maybe not quite like I used to but time will tell!

I got to take a "momcation" last month and had a whirlwind experience in good ol' California with my family.  I don't feel like I need to write out the experience since my Daddy did an excellent job of that already and he has WAY more pictures than I have so please pop over to his blog and discover .......

THE RAGNAR EXPERIENCE

2013

this was my backyard in Florida.  Do you see the track?? 

Told you I wasn't exaggerating!