Sarah Lorge Butler's Blog

Jeannette Shannon Raub, a Run Your Butt Off! reader and member of our Facebook group, was the winner of the June, 2013 challenge. I asked Jeannette to explain how she got started running and how she stays motivated. Her powerful response took me by surprise. It was a little too long for Facebook, so I’ve put it here. Can you keep a dry eye when you read about her first 5K? I couldn’t.

I am 52 years old and never thought I would ever, ever consider myself a runner.

In my day job, I’m a computer programmer (been doing that for 24 years, 16 with my current company). I have three grown children and six grandchildren. Yes, I am a grandma and I love every minute of it!

I started eating healthier after a trip to the doctor in October of 2012 to see if I could be taken off of Metformin, a diabetes drug, which I was on for 12 years. I felt like I no longer had much of a sense of smell or taste. When the doctor said I would become a very sick woman if I continued to eat and not exercise without the medicine, something clicked. The fear of what would happen to my blood sugar, without the safety net from the medicine, pushed me to change my thinking. Instead of saying to myself, “Oh, I can’t eat this,” I started asking, “What can I eat?” I started looking for vegetable recipes, because the only way I really had eaten them in the past was boiling them to mush with butter so my kids would eat them. I discovered just how yummy roasted veggies are!

Anyway, I started exercising in November on the treadmill and elliptical. My mom passed away that month, and that was a force for me to keep going. So I saw your book in an email I got somewhere and thought I’d order it. I started reading the book at the end of February and began putting in the stages on the first of March.

This whole running thing started with my daughter getting into it three or four years ago with a friend. Then my son became a vegetarian, and he, too, jumped on the running wheel. So when I read the book, I started thinking, “Maybe I can do this.” I made a deal with my son (who lives in Kentucky) that I would like to possibly jog around the block with him the next time he comes home. He said, “Mom, I’m going to hold you to that. I want you to keep up with getting healthy.”  Words of support and encouragement from my children have helped me keep focused.

And so I did and the rewards have been way beyond what I could have ever imagined!

I am now not only off the Metformin but also no longer need a blood pressure pill I was taking, and I have dropped one cholesterol med as well. This, to me, means more than the 70.2 pounds that I have now lost, which is another wonderful side effect.

As for fitting in time to run, I have gotten to an age now, with an empty house and only 2 dogs, that things that used to be so important to me just no longer are. The house can wait for me to clean it; the dogs don’t complain. I’d rather go for a run and take care of my “personal house.” I try to make meals on Saturdays and Sundays for the week because I don’t like cooking every night just for me. It’s easier to have something in the freezer home cooked and ready to heat up.

My June total was 70.76 miles running and 22.49 miles walking. I usually run alone. Saturday and Sunday are morning runs, right after I get up and get my dogs their breakfast. Tuesday and Thursday are evenings after work, before I eat dinner. I am now at a point where my average distance is a full 3-mile run each time. And yes, instead of driving to a recent doctor’s appointment, I ran to it, which was 1.53 miles and back 2.30 miles.

As for motivation along the way, when I would hit another stage, I would say, “Why are you doing this? It’s too hard. You are going to hurt yourself.” Then I told myself, “You are doing it because you can, and you can hurt yourself just as much by being unhealthy and sitting on the couch.” One of the most important points for me from the book that I remembered was “Be consistent.” You must do it 3 to 4 times a week in order to build up and get stronger.

The other motivation for me has been not from the scale but from having the doctor take me off of medicine. And I continue to hear the words in my head from my mom saying, “Don’t let your health get like this.” It drives me to keep going. I don’t want my children to have to take care of me and see my health the way I saw my mom’s. Plus I want to see my grandkids graduate and live life and share in it with them. My children also motivate me. When I went to visit my son in Kentucky, I loved doing morning walks with him and at home, any time my daughter can join me, I just feel so proud.

I did my first 5K on July 4. I have found most runners are so encouraging, no matter what your pace. I know when it kicked off, I thought, “I’m going faster than my normal,” but then I noticed people passing me left and right and thought, “Oh, gosh, I am going slow.” I reminded myself the only thing I want to do is finish.

My daughter ran beside me. When I hit the one-mile mark, she said, “Mom, that was just over 10 minutes. Watch your pace so you don’t burn out.” I thought “Holy crap, 10 minutes, that’s way faster than I have ever gone, I’d better slow down.” The middle of the second mile, my feet felt like there were weights in them, but it came back around. As we ran down the expressway, there were a few groups of people standing by, and I felt so much happiness when my daughter was yelling, “That’s my mom right there, and this is her first full 5K!” They applauded and I gave a thumbs up.

I had two goals for this first 5K: to finish and if possible, get it done under 36 minutes. I did both! Out of 22 women in my age group, I was 16th, with a time of 34:40, an 11:11-minute mile pace, which is faster than I have ever run!

Each new phase or accomplishment just makes me want to see what more I can do. There is a 10K in October. I can run 4 miles now, and with 3 months to improve, I think I can possibly accomplish that.

I have found that when I finally stopped letting my mind oppress me, my body has absolutely amazed me with what it can do!

This week marks one year since the release of Run Your Butt Off! Wow, has it been fun! I love hearing from so many readers who never believed they could be runners. With patience, consistency, and maybe a few of the tips they picked up in the book, they found that they could, in fact, run for 30 minutes straight. And they love it. That's the most gratifying thing to hear.

We've been having some laughs over on the RYBO facebook page, so please follow us there and weigh in on my lime green compression socks.

I'm hard at work on Walk Your Butt Off!, due out spring of 2013. Our test panelists who tried the program did extremely well at walking faster and shedding pounds. A few of them, in fact, can walk 5K faster than many runners run 5K. I have new respect for walking — it's a tough workout — and these days I often find myself walking on my days off from running.

Thanks for the support this year!

I've gotten a nice response from some folks who have been trying the running plan in the book, and it has been very gratifying. The discussion on the Run Your Butt Off! Facebook page is lively. And this article in the Boston Globe on the Monday of the Boston Marathon offered a very balanced look at the exercise/appetite dilemma. If you're new to running, please let me know how it's going! As for me, I'm attempting the Lehigh Valley Half-Marathon on Sunday. It's my first "halfie" in two years. Fingers crossed.

Happy day! Run Your Butt Off! is available today through Rodale, Amazon and B&N. My colleague at Runner's World, the esteemed Peter Gambaccini, did a "brief chat" with me yesterday about the book, and it's live on RW.com now. Hopefully it gives a good sense of what the book is about and who it's for. Thanks a lot, Peter.

The book officially goes on sale on March 15, which is really cool. My colleague at CBS MoneyWatch.com, Amy Levin-Epstein, quoted me in a post last week about business travel and staying healthy on the road. I'm critical of the moving walkways at airports and she quotes me saying, "Geez Louise, people – just drag your wheelie behind you and move your tush a little before you settle into that airplane seat!" Maybe I'm a tad overzealous.

Beginner Running seminar

When: Saturday, April 28

Time: 9:00 a.m.

Where: Holiday Inn, 904 West Hamilton Street, Allentown

Couch to 5K seminar

When: Monday, May 16

Time: 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.

Where: St. Luke's Hospital, 17th and Hamilton in Allentown, 1st floor education room