Here we go again...

So it's been close to a month since I posted, but have no fear! I'm still in this thing! I've just been crazy busy. First off, I graduated college! Hurrah! Go me! I did it in three years! I'm really proud of myself, not going to lie. Post graduation has been crazy. I had to come home for good and bad reasons. I was asked to present a scholarship at my old high school to a student going to Columbia College, as a recent Columbia alumni. I was honored, and it was amazing. I also had to come home for a funeral, a very unexpected one. A classmate from high school was in a car crash and passed away. I went to a very different high school, very accelerated and very small, I graduated with 42 people I believe, and so it was very shocking to loose someone from my class. He was insanely smart, and would have done amazing things in his career and life. His passing reminded me that life is short, and no one should take it for granted. A pretty great lesson to be reminded of, and one that has thrown me headfirst into training and getting ready for this epic marathon I've crazily decided to do...

So, ON WITH THE MARATHON! Ok, I'm not that excited, I'm scared to death, but I've doing a lot of marathon nerdy prep work here, so let me tell you about it some. Bullet point list time (something I'm very fond of, as you will find out...)

-I've told way too many people that I'm running the Chicago marathon, thus I cannot turn back or I will look like an ass. I'm going to tell even more people. I'm going to post it on facebook, and tag all my old high school friends. If seeing people and being afraid of telling them I failed at running a marathon isn't enough motivation, I don't know what is...

-I bought the shoes. Yes, THE shoes. My dad is starting to believe that I'm serious about this marathon thing, because I actually spent a pretty penny of my own money on a pair of running shoes and not trendy high heels. I got a pair of Nike shocks. They are lime green and silver and make me look like I actually know what I'm doing (if you just look at my feet). They also are Nike+iPod, so they have a computer chip that tracks to my ipod my pace, distance, time, and calories burned, and give me neat things like powersongs and a talking lady (I call her Becky) who tells me what I've done so far in my workout, and warns me of time countdowns. My friend Neil is referring to me as computer shoes. This is my new nickname. You may now call me this. I've accepted my fate.

-I've talked to people who do marathons! And survived! They didn't skin me alive or burn me at a stake for being a fat girl who wants to run a marathon in 20 weeks! Yes, I was amazed, but it made me feel a lot better. I spoke to a former teacher from high school who has done numerous marathons himself, and have trained people of all shapes and sizes and levels to run marathons, triathlons, and other giant scary sporting events. So basically he knows what the hell he is talking about. We spoke, he gave some advice, and told me to e-mail him. So I did, and included in the e-mail the tone of just how uneducated I am on marathons and just how crazy I am. I sure hope he can help, haha.

-I went to the doctor. Yay? Yeah, I wasn't so thrilled. I gained 10 lbs since my visit last October. I blame the stress of senior year, damn me and my bad eating habits. I told him I have decided to run a marathon. I figured he may slap me and go ARE YOU CRAZY!? but he was very nice about the whole thing. He said that he loves goal oriented plans to get healthy. He told me to eat fruit instead of carbs before I work out, since someone my size shouldn't really eat plates of pasta. He told me to start slow, and gradually increase my workout each week, about 10%, to prevent serious injury, since I'm putting A LOT of weight down on my feet and joints. He told me to maybe train for a half marathon and do the marathon next year, mainly because he was worried more about my Dad running it. This makes me worry, because I obviously don't want my Dad to keel over around mile 22, this would be very unfortunate. But, he said it is up to me, and be damned I am running the Chicago marathon this year! It's really the idea behind it for me that keeps me going. So I've met the doctor in the middle. Me and Dad are running the half marathon in August in Chicago, and if he does ok, he will continue to the full marathon in October. If I don't do ok, I'm still doing this damn marathon. It's now become something I just have to do. I'm watching my grandfather eat himself into a diabetic coma, his sugar sky high all the time. I'm watching a cousin loose a toe (and possibly a foot) because of poor circulation due to her diabetes. She's lost weight, and told me to take some diet pill, that I could eat anything I want and loose weight if I took this pill. This disturbed me beyond. Here is someone loosing their foot because of their poor health and eating habits, and she still believes that a little pill will change her life. It won't, you must make a lifestyle change, and that is just what I'm doing, and that is what keeps me going.

So there ya have it. I have a stress and EKG test tomorrow at a heart center, just to make sure that I won't kill myself doing this. I get to be hooked up to some machine with heart monitors, and do stuff on a treadmill. Ya know, like you see in movies! It shall be fun. Wow, you know things are changing when I start to think that doctors and treadmills are fun. So it goes...so it goes...

keep it real folks.

In the words of Van Halen...JUMP!

Hi. I'm Lisa. I'm a 21 year old, who is graduating from college in one week. So obviously I have a lot of things going through my head right now, right? And at the top of the list of numerous worries (how will I get a job, what will it be like in the adult world, how will I pay rent) is the worry of how do I get health insurance? See, the problem is I'm obese. Yup. According to insurance companies, I will die so soon, that I'm really not worth the coverage. Bit of a smack in the face, but I've taken it pretty well.

I've struggled with weight my entire life. I've tried numerous things, and nothing has jolted me, scared me, or really inspired me enough to really care about my health until now. See, a lot of things in the past 6 months have made me realize I should start taking care of myself. First of all, the fact that I'm going out into the real world, and I need to be healthy, so I can get insurance, get a better job (face it, looks sometimes do matter, it's a cruel world), and learn to love myself. Second, my mother was diagnosed with colon cancer this past March. Thankfully she caught it early, but the whole scope of the situation is still unclear. The main thing was seeing my mother face the ideas of mortality and death, and seeing how much she wanted to see her daughter healthy and happy, so that she didn't have to worry about me and know that no matter what happens with her cancer I'll be ok. She's always worried about my health. She wants the best for me in all aspects of my life. I'm blessed to have parents that care so much about me. Another thing was having a close friend who is dealing with her own body issues and food issues. Talking to her, seeing the things I've felt before, have made me be more honest about my situation with not only her but myself. And finally, just being so tired of being unhealthy and unhappy, that I've decided (with some inspiration from another overweight runner) to do something ridiculous and crazy, but something that will change my life.

I, Lisa White, am going to run the 2007 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon on October 7, 2007.

I got the idea to do this from a very inspiration man named Jacob. He has a site, http://blog.whatwouldjacobdo.com/ that details his decision to run the Boston Marathon after being fed up of weighting over 400 pounds. Granted he didn't finish in the time frame suggested, he finished the race, and that was the one thing that inspired so much. If someone who is bigger than myself (no offense, it just made me inspire and convince myself more)can do something this crazy and succeed, then I can do it. I know I can.

So, October 7, 2007 my father and I (he's decided to run with me, I'm so grateful and proud of him to back me) will be crossing the Chicago Marathon finish line, despite how long it takes us. Hopefully over the next 5 months we can train ourselves to finish in the allotted time, but regardless, we will finish. We will also be raising money, in hopes that we can raise enough to qualify to apply for registration through a charity, since the registration spots are closed, and you must now register for the race through a charity. IF we do not raise enough money to join and register, we will still run (sadly unofficial), and will donate the money we do raise to charity of choice.

Regardless, I'm putting this site out there, to tell people, so I cannot back out of this. In life, you have to just make a choice, stick with it, and JUMP (like how I tied in that Van Halen title, eh?). I'm doing just that. It's time for a change in my life, so here we go...