Gridiron... Girl?!

     Gridiron? Girl? Do those two words even belong in the same sentence? If I were to give you a little bit of my history-which I'm about to do- then you will see that they most definitely do belong together!
     For the past three years, I have played women's semi-professional tackle football for a team in Kansas City called the KC Tribe.  Sports have always been a passion of mine ever since I was a little girl. I was a huge tomboy, running around with the boys playing baseball and popping wheelies on my bike. I became a serious athlete in high school playing softball and basketball on the Varsity level. Sadly, I missed out on the opportunity to be a college athlete. I dabbled in intramural and recreational sports during and after college hoping to fill that void. However, because I LOVE competition and challenges, these things did not fulfill that need. The opportunity to play football landed in my lap during my first year living in Kansas City when I got invited to a practice- I fell in love from that moment on! Playing football fulfilled everything I had missed out on in college- competition, team comradery, and travel. I played tackle football for three incredible years. I had an amazing career traveling the Midwest and winning a World Championship in 2009!
     After retiring from football in 2010, I needed and wanted yet another challenge. I considered other sports like rugby, but having my only football injury be a broken thumb I decided not to press my luck (much to my parents pleasure!) But what else could I "tackle" that would satisfy my craving for competition and challenge? I heard of friends doing marathons, 5 and 10k races, and even triathlons... for fun! But running... for the sake of running? YIKES!  I would never do something like that, nor would I ever learn to love it... (or so I thought!) I mean, I have always been an athlete- I could shoot hoops, hit a home run, and even tackle the biggest of "BIG" girls in football. I would rather hit the weights and out lift a majority of girls and a few guys any day. I loved every minute of that kind of stuff! Something I didn't love every minute of was running- during games, practices, whenever. I was just not a fan of it...
     HOW PERFECT!! What better challenge and personal competition than running for the sake of running... and learning to love it! And I didn't mean a 5 or 10k... buuut I didn't mean a full marathon either. I'll start with a half-marathon, 13.1 looong miles! (the whole time thinking I was absolutely crazy... I never ran more than 4 miles in my life!) Well to make that long story short, I tackled that challenge on October 16, 2010 by completing the Waddell & Reed Half Marathon in Kansas City with a time of 2:05. Although very frustrated at first because I didn't accomplish my goal of getting it under 2:00, I was content. I don't like being content, especially when it comes to completing a challenge- I'm somewhat of a perfectionist in that aspect. So its either- run another half marathon and beat that time OR accomplish an even larger task...    
     "Go BIG or Go Home!" Gotta love that saying... So with that said (and finally getting to the point of my writing), I have decided to challenge myself in a way I never thought I would WANT to- I will be running AND completing a full marathon in October of this year :) Because it is something I never, ever saw myself doing, I want to document along the way. It will be a life-changing experience (so my best friend Emily tells me) so I want proof- proof of the sweat (I'll be training in Arizona of all freakin' places, lol), tears (There's no crying in...running? We'll see about that!), and the transformation my body will make through the next four months. I'm excited about tackling this challenge! I can only imagine at this point how incredible an experience this will be! I encourage you to read my future blogs and take part in the experience as well. As I learn to love this journey, I hope you too can learn to love your own...