Somewhat lost in all the baby excitement the last two weeks, was the news that I “won” the lottery for the NYC Marathon. On November 2nd, me and 50,000 of my closest friends will be stomping our way through the five boroughs.

I am excited. Nervous, but excited.

It’s amazing how quickly you can lose what you’ve gained. Or maybe it’s better stated that you can gain what you’ve lost. After not running for the better part of 3 months, I realize that I need to get in shape – to start training. How ridiculous is that? I’ve managed to lose all the endurance that I previously had built up running.  So while I have the experience of running in a handful of half marathons. I am currently struggling to put together a mile without some walking. I have no doubt that I will be able to ramp myself back up. But of course in the same 3 months, I have managed to gain the unappreciated winter coat. Not so much winter for me… I have been carrying this one around for a while.

Although just a couple of years ago I managed to drop 75 lbs, as documented by this blog… I have methodically been putting it back on. I have gone through phases. Some good, and some bleh. So now I am once again at a crossroads. What motivated me the first go round was the wanting to be able to play with my son as he got older. I didn’t want to be sitting on the couch watching him play. I wanted to be the guy who he was throwing the ball to. And now there are 2. Two kids… so twice the motivation, right?

Time to get back to here again

That I am not so sure about. Although Matthew was the spark that got me going, I realized at some point along the journey that I was really doing it for myself. I needed to take care of ME first. Where that has gotten lost along the way, I just don’t know. The one thing I know for sure is that I love to eat, but I do love my family more. So I once again need to hunker down and put together a plan.

I’ll use the Marathon as my end goal. Since I started running a few years ago, I always had the thought of completing one in the back of my mind. Part of me imagines that I will only run ONE. I decided to go big – NYC. Along the way, the plan will be to shed the unwanted weight. I can’t even imagine running any race carrying the extra pounds that I am lugging around now, let alone a full marathon. So with that being said, the new target is 230 on 11/2.

I’ve managed to hit the gym 5 days in a row this week. A streak that many wouldn’t think much of. But one thing I know is that consistency is the key. And with a newborn in the house, getting to the gym once would have been a plus. So for now, the important thing to focus on is making it the 6th day and the 7th day, and so on. I’ll take the small wins for now. And a big victory in November.