Twelve months ago, I was encouraged by a friend to get up before the sun rose and go to a spin class with her. Exercise was the farthest thing from my mind and had been for a handful of years. But she promised me that the instructor was entertaining, the music was great and except for the possibility of falling off the stationary bike, I had very little opportunity for injury. After a few classes I was hooked.
My friend and I joined the same gym and continued to work out together. We pushed each other well beyond the point that we would have dared go by ourselves. We found that by doing this together we could accomplish more than we could alone. We set a few small milestone goals for ourselves in the beginning; run a 5k and then run a 10k. After running at least a dozen 5ks and a 10k we began to wonder what the next goal would be. We decided to set a big goal that, at the time, seemed simply impossible: we were going to run a half marathon. We signed up for the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in Las Vegas.
The goal was daunting but we continued to encourage each other. There were plenty of mornings that 4:30 came entirely too early and I just wanted to turn off the alarm and go back to bed. But then I would think of my friend, waiting in the dark on her porch for me to pick her up and I would reluctantly drag myself out of bed. Throughout the 7 months we trained there were plenty of times that “life” happened: illness, work, travel, family…you name it. But each time that happened, we knew the other would be waiting to help us get back on track.
I told everyone that I signed up for the race. Everyday conversations invariably turned to questions about how my training was coming along. Four of my friends made plans to be in Las Vegas to cheer me on at the race. This campaign was a way to keep my eye on the goal and at the same time presented an opportunity for accountability. People I knew and loved were spending money to see me finish this race (among other things) and there was no way I was going to let them down!
The beginning of the race was breathtaking and the middle of the race was exhausting. But the end of the race was exhilarating. I saw my friends at the finish line frantically cheering me toward the end. I was wishing that my feet had fallen off around mile 8. My right hip and right knee were in agony. I missed my finish time goal by 50 minutes. I didn’t care about any of that. I was so happy to see those familiar faces and the excitement they contained.
My knee still hurts over a week later so I have scheduled two weeks of no running. It would be incredibly easy for me to settle back in to a routine of sleeping past 4AM like normal people do, sitting on the couch and watching TV. The thought of that is both wonderful and frightening all at the same time! So two days ago, I signed up for another half marathon in May of 2011.
