By Theresa Olsen

I started running in January 2010 and signed up for Building Steam. I was at the run/walk stage and probably doing a 12 minute pace…slow, but steady. I had a great time with Building Steam on wednesday nights and managed to work my way down to the 10:30 group by raca day.

I ran my first Steamboat Classic in June 2010 and had a finish time of 46 minutes. It was a fantastic race and the experience of running through the finish line was amazing and brought me to tears! I was on a high the rest of the day and so excited to have completed my first race.

At this time, I swore that a 4 mile distance was sufficient and I really did not need to run any farther. I would continue to run a 3–4 mile distance and maintain my pace.

Fast forward to this past winter 2011 and after several conversations with a friend, he convinced me to enter the Champaign 1/2 marathon. Holy Cow…I was signing up to run 13.1 miles…at one time! I found a training program online and followed it for my weekly training runs. I even got my husband interested and signed him up to run too. We worked hard in our training and slowly built up our mileage. Our long training runs on the weekend brought us even closer to together in our already strong marriage. Another bonus, we were setting a great example for our kids who followed along as we increased our miles and they were so excited each time we ran a little bit farther.

On April 30, 2011, my husband and I completed our first 1/2 Marathon at Champaign, IL. It was an absolutely incredible experience and I hope to be the first of many. My time was 2:32:27 and my husband finished in an amazing 1:55:54. We had such a great time and were so proud to be able to walk around with our finisher medals and cool race shirts. we both turn 40 this year and this was something we wanted to accomplish with that milestone birthday!

I already have the Champaign 1/2 on my calendar for next year and I am also signing up for a 1/2 marathon in Northern Norway in June 2012 in Tromso, Norway, 2 hours from where my in-laws live. At this time, I can honestly say I have NO DESIRE to run a full marathon…but, you never know! I also swore that 4 miles was enough!

We will also be running Steamboat this year and I expect to improve my time from last year…now 4 miles is a piece of cake! Thank you Steamboat Team for the great training, fantastic race and giving me the inspiration and motivation to get out there and just do it!