So it ends and begins

I am a 52 year old woman. It's been exactly one year since my last menstrual period. I believe, actually I'm pretty sure, this puts me officially and undeniably into Menopause. No big surprise. Seems to be pretty much the average age. Still...I feel the need to acknowledge this new "me" and decide how much I like it. Can't say that I have missed having periods. I barely tolerated them for the better part of 40 years. I am a little fearful though of what else Menopause will mean. The hot flashes have been present for years and I'm used to them. I've read about all of the other things to come: weight gain, osteoporosis, depression, sleep diturbances, and decreased sexual desire to name a few. It's scary. Seriously, can someone give me the up side? Getting old is the one part of life that we all share. How we handle it, in my opinion, is what sets us apart. That's where the Marathon comes in.

I am not a writer or a runner but I plan on writing about running. I have decided to run a Marathon. I needed something big to balance out the other big thing in my life, Menopause. A Marathon seemd close to the appropriate size. I repeat, I am not a runner. I started running, or should I say jogging to be more accurate, about 6 months ago. My normal activity level was not keeping the weight from sneaking on, especially around my belly. I was turning into an apple on a stick. I have an active job as a Pediatric Physical Therapist. I coach, teach, and play tennis. I was taking long walks on a regular basis. Not enough. A new friend was a long time runner and bike rider. I decided to take up these higher energy and endurance sports to see if I could get back to my ideal shape. Note, I said shape, not weight. I had stopped weighing myself years ago. Found it put me in a bad mood for at least the rest of that day. I am now "hooked'. Not addicted to running, addicted to being done running. My whole day improves if I know I got my run in. My longest run thus far is 10 miles and I've only done that twice. It took 2 hours.

Before you get worried about my sanity or at the very least my good judgement, let me tell you that the Marathon is not until mid-November. That gives me over 5 months to train. I plan on sharing it all in this blog and hope that if anyone reads this and has some good advice for me, they will share that with me in return.

Enough for the intro. More to follow.