Believe Achieve

As you probably know, I am a very loyal customer at my local sporting goods store, Try Sports, in Wilmington, NC.  I get their email newsletters and I subscribe to their frequent shopper club.  So you can imagine my delight when I was approached to contribute a "Believe Achieve" story.  The goal of these stories was to highlight customers that not only Believed in a goal - but that they Achieved it.

I was even more excited to find the newsletter with my story in my inbox this week!  You can read the entire story here or the text below. 

As someone who thought running was necessary only when being chased, it is surprising that I am scheduling races as fast as I finish the last one. My running addiction started in 2011 when I ran my first half marathon after being coerced into registering for the race by my daughter. She set out to run a half marathon as part of her list of thirty things to do before her thirtieth birthday. The day after she requested I join her in the Princess Half Marathon at Disney World in February 2011, I went to the gym and ran three miles. It was awful, and I did not know how I could possibly run 10.1 more miles. I searched the internet for a training plan and adhered to it diligently. We finished the race and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. I ran several other shorter distance races in 2011 and another half marathon in September.

Fast forward to 2012 and my year was filled with all kinds of training and races. My first goal was to run a personal best time for my leg (a half marathon) at the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend relay. The race conditions were fantastic and I improved my time by over 3 minutes with a finish of 2:03. I have run 3 more half marathons (2 with my daughter) since and am preparing for my first full marathon in January as part of the Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge which includes a half marathon the previous day. While my daughter and I don't live in the same town, we frequently communicate about our training runs and even blog about our experiences at www.werundisney.com.

Who would have thought that at 57 I would begin my running career? Certainly not me! It's taught me a lot about myself and has been a great experience to share with my daughter.

Be sure to check out Try Sports' Believe Achieve page for some awesomely inspiring stories about other athletes!

(Pam)