{"id":26005,"date":"2014-03-10T08:54:05","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T13:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fitzness.com\/blog\/?p=26005"},"modified":"2015-03-09T14:04:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T19:04:59","slug":"after-being-swept-from-the-course-several-times-down-70-pounds-pam-smith-crosses-the-enchanted-10k-finish-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fitzness.com\/blog\/after-being-swept-from-the-course-several-times-down-70-pounds-pam-smith-crosses-the-enchanted-10k-finish-line\/","title":{"rendered":"After Being Swept from the Course Several Times & Dropping 70 Pounds, Pam Smith Crosses the Enchanted 10K Finish Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Pam Smith, 53, <\/span>Legal Assistant, <\/span>Brandon, Florida<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let’s start with this beautiful finish line picture. You had just completed Disney’s Enchanted 10K during its Princess Half Marathon weekend<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>About three weeks after having been swept from the Princess Half Marathon in 2013, I had to have emergency abdominal hernia repair.\u00a0 I was out of commission for eight weeks.\u00a0 But I kept looking at videos and training programs and trying to figure out what I could from home.\u00a0 The day I was released from the surgeon, I was excited about starting to get ready for the next race, determined to do the Wine & Dine Half Marathon<\/a> in November of 2013, the Walt Disney World Half Marathon in January 2014 and the Enchanted 10K this February.\u00a0 So I started working out \u2013 seriously this time.<\/p>\n

I went to buy a pair of good shoes and by chance met the man who would change my life, he was and still is my running coach and friend.\u00a0 I started working out with him in June of 2013.\u00a0 But at the end of July, the hernia repair failed and I found out that I was going to have to have surgery again. The surgery was scheduled for December 2013, but that didn\u2019t stop me.\u00a0 I kept training (with the help of my coach) almost right up to the surgery.\u00a0 I was out of Wine & Dine and had to pull out of the WDW Half.\u00a0 But the Enchanted 10K was hanging on by a thread.\u00a0 I thought there was no way that it was going to happen, and no way was I going to be ready for it. I am not sure whether it was the fact I was just in better shape than my before my first surgery or the fact that I continued to train, but I felt considerably stronger after the second surgery. I had lost approximately 75 pounds from October 2012 and bounced back from the surgery very quickly.\u00a0 The day I was released from the surgeon (1\/22\/14) I went back to the gym and started working on the treadmill.\u00a0 I had decided that I was going to give the 10K a shot, realizing that there was a very good chance that I was going to be swept. (FYI – If you move at a pacer slower than a 16 minute mile, race organizers will remove you from the race.)<\/p>\n