Ready for Ragnar

I've struggled this year with balance... balancing my career, family, health.  It's been tilted more towards my career, which has been difficult. Not that I don't love my job, because I do.  I wouldn't have done it for 20 years if I didn't.  But a promotion has brought on additional responsibilities and new leadership has brought on new strategies and challenges.  Just a lot more stress and time dedicated towards work.  Tilted, lopsided.  I feel as though I've done a years worth of work in just the 1st quarter of 2015.  Family dynamics has also changed with my husband going back to work full time.  For years, he was a stay at home dad doing most of the work - shopping and taking care of the kids.  I needed to step up to the plate with a lot of the family obligations.  I'm happy to do it, but I'm exhausted by the end of the day.  I haven't always been good at it. Which brings me to my health.  I have managed to get in workout sessions when I could, but not to the degree I wanted to.  The stresses of the day seeps into my evenings and wrecks my sleep. My eating is all over the place.. sometimes clean, other times stress eating anything that makes me feel better. I gain 10 lbs over the winter and I haven't been able to shake it off.

So now with just 2 weeks until I meet up with my Running Down a Dream team to run Ragnar Cape Cod, am I ready?  I had wanted to lose 10-20 lbs and get my running speed up, but I gained 10 lbs instead.  My pace has not really improved and is probably a bit slower than it was just 6 months ago. But this adventure is not about winning a race.. it's about a bunch of strangers with some things in common to get together and have fun.  I'm excited to meet everyone and be inspired by their stories of getting healthy through running.  Most have been at goal weight for some time, where I am still on the losing journey.  It's going to be rough... our starting time is 5:30am and we will need to be there an hour early.  My 1st leg isn't until early evening and I've never liked running at night. I'm an early bird.  My next leg is like at 3am the next day, so hopefully I can get some rest in the van. My final leg will be sometime that afternoon - second to last before running across the finish line. I am so anxious about how I will perform, but I will do my best and have FUN along the way.

Am I ready for Ragnar?  You bet your ass I am!  I need it!  I need to prove to myself that I can correct this out of balance in my life. If I can survive this with a smile on my face, I can do anything!