I ran my first half marathon. I, Kayla Mills, ran a half marathon…
Up until 2 years ago I never thought I would say those words (or type those words). I registered for my first half marathon this past June after realizing my 25th birthday was a month away and that I had listed “run a half marathon” on my list of goals for my 24th year of life, I didn’t want to let myself down.
I was still hesitant about this half marathon and as I typed my credit card information into the website I mentally committed. Over the last 3.5 years of my life, I have realized that if I want something, really want something I can make it happen with determination, dedication and my positive mindset. I won’t do a deep dive of my “fitness journey” but I do want to give some context. I was moderately active growing up, I played sports in high school (for fun), I yo-yoed with my weight since I can remember (the earliest was middle school). When I finally ventured into the gym in high school I was there to lose weight and I would obsess over the scale and spend at least an hour doing cardio while only paying attention to the caloric burn on the display. I would drop a lot of weight, burn myself out, gain it back and then repeat the cycle. In 2016 I moved into an apartment alone. This was my opportunity to focus and in that year I lost around 40 pounds. After some trial and error, I changed my mindset and used fitness to feel stronger and celebrate what I could do vs. punishing myself to work off all of the calories I consumed that day. During this time I was mainly doing strength workouts but started running because I knew so many people enjoyed it and I wanted to be one of those people.
