Initial Posting

I am Kinrad, and this is pretty much all new to me.  I've never written a blog before, so I'm learning all the tools as I go.  I plan on using this blog to document my thought process as I march toward my newest goal, running a marathon:

They say you should do something that scares you every day, well this should cover me for the next 8 months or so.  I have signed up for my first marathon on January 13th, 2013 in Disney, so the clock is already ticking!

Here's a little information about me.  I used to be very heavy, 256 pounds on a 5'6½" frame.  I started running a little over two years ago to lose weight, and found it to be a very relaxing experience.  At one point I had gotten down to 163 pounds, but then things got out of hand and I lost focus.  I started gaining weight, and then getting depressed that I was gaining weight... which of course led to more weight gain.  I managed to eat and drink myself up to 190 pounds before I decided I needed to get back to it.  If found a great web site (myfitnesspal.com), and started logging *everything* I eat, and every bit of exercise.  That isn't particularity difficult for me, as I am (self diagnosed) OCD and tend to fuss over little things all the time.

I'm back on track, weighing in at 172 at the writing of this post, with a current weight loss goal of 160.  I run what I consider a lot of miles (30-35 per week), strength train a few days a week, and even go to a spin class a couple times a week to break things up.  I'm not a fast runner (9:30 over short distances, 10:30 in a 1/2 marathon), and have never run more than 14 miles.

So here I am, overweight, approaching 40 years old, and trying to basically double my longest run ever.  There is a lot of stuff going through my head right now, and I'll be adding posts as I find time to share my neurosis.