what makes you feel healthy?

A friend of mine recently ran a marathon. A full marathon. 26 miles. 

Twenty. Six. Miles. 

(In my world, 2 miles is a serious accomplishment)

Ten push-ups? I AM AN OLYMPIC ATHLETE!!!

The other day she told me all about her experience - what made her want to do it, her training, and the actual race - and I walked away feeling majorly inspired. She made it her New Years resolution to run a marathon and gave herself 4 months to train. Every week, she ran (and ran and ran). Slowly but surely, running 8 miles without stopping was no big deal. She didn't change her diet. She did some swimming here and there. Rode her bike instead of taking the bus. She ran some more (and suddenly, 18 miles was easy business). And four months later? She ran 26 miles without stopping! 

What inspired me the most was the fact that she set a (huge) goal and stuck with it. We all know that running is the absolute worst, but she managed to do it anyway. She looks great, feels great, and wants to do it again! 

Anyhow. I was really impressed with her. So impressed that I decided... 

*drum roll, please* 

I am going to run a half-marathon! Hurrah! 

I have a little over 2 months to prepare for it. Since she gave herself 4 months to get ready for a full marathon, I'm hoping this is enough time to prepare for the half. It's going to be great! It's going to be terrible and really hard and sweaty and exhausting. I'm going to hate every second of it and am going to try and convince myself every single day that hanging out on the couch really is better for me than going for a run. I'll probably want to quit (after the first day).

But I won't! I want to start feeling healthy again, and along with eating all my fruits & veggies, committing to something like this is going to be well worth it.

What makes you feel healthy? Would you ever want to run a marathon?