Non-Scale Victories: I Registered for a Half Marathon

I have officially lost my mind.  Like for realsies.  I have been threatening to register for a September half marathon for weeks now and this morning was the last day to get the discounted registration fee.  So I did it.  I registered for a half marathon!  

I won't officially start training for it until July which gives me all of June to build up my mileage and, you know, get to where I can run 10k without stopping, let alone a full 13.1 miles.  But I'm proud of myself for taking this step.  There was a time in my life when I wouldn't have dreamed of signing up for a half marathon.  Ashley the kid couldn't even do the one mile run in gym class.  If you had told me  then that Ashley the twenty-something would voluntarily sign up for a 13.1 mile run I would have laughed in your face and told you that was impossible.  

Signing up for this race means more to me than just slapping down a (whopping) registration fee and getting a goodie bag on race day.  Because I didn't sign up to race; I signed up to change my life.  I knew when I started this journey that if I really wanted to lose the weight and keep it off forever, the cost of changing myself would be paid in my sweat, pain and tears.  But I also knew that once I paid that price there wouldn't be any turning back.  For me, this race is about moving forward and moving on to a place I've never been and saying goodbye to the girl I used to be because part of paying for change is letting her go.  

I am becoming a new woman.  I will be strong, I will be dauntless, I will do things I thought were impossible.  I will change one day at a time, one step at a time, until I come out on the other side better for having had the experience.