So, I’ve decided to give running a full marathon a
shot. What the hell was I thinking when
I did that? I’m not really sure. I mean, I signed up months ago, but I’m
still trying to wrap my head around that.
Most of us drive that every day, and it doesn’t seem like a lot. Well, in a car it’s not, but for the human
body, it really is.
Most
people are thinking, “Dude, you’ve been at this for the last 4 or 5 years, you
got this.” I know I’ve run four half
marathons and four 10 mile races, but this is nothing like that. Nothing at all. And honestly, I’m preaching to the choir here
and I’m not really saying anything that anyone doesn’t already know. But still, what the hell was I thinking?
To be
honest, I was thinking a lot of things.
My first thoughts were of inspiration.
I’ve seen countless people do this.
I know quite a few that have done this.
One of my close friends Bryan Benson’s brother Brad has run many
marathons. He’s done the New York
Marathon. Always encouraging, and always
running. I reached out to Brad when I
first decided to run a half marathon for some tips, and they helped. I’ve watched other friends cross the finish
line and seeing how proud they were of themselves for doing so, and the seeds
started to be planted in my brain. And
then, I read an article online about an 82 year old woman (or maybe it was 92)
finish a marathon. Are you kidding
me? This women, twice my age did
it. Why they hell couldn’t I? That right there is inspiration.
Crossing the finish line of my
first half, I couldn’t believe what I had just done. And, I didn’t want to stop there either. So, I did a few more. But why did I have to stop there? I’m sure I’m going to do plenty of half marathons,
but what is the next challenge? Well,
that seems to be easy enough to figure out.
I might as well double that mileage.
And now, I’m committed to it.
Come May 1st, it’s going to get real. Yep.
Sh*t is gonna get real.
I’ve never been the most athletic
person. But then again, I don’t think I
ever gave myself a fair shake, or even enough credit. Even at 42 years old (43 come race time)
sometimes I still don’t give myself enough credit when I should. Maybe that’s a fault of mine. Or, maybe that’s just my own way of pushing myself
to do better. At one point in my young
life, I played little league football.
Back then, we only had four teams in Moon, and we didn’t travel around
to other schools. We just played those
other three teams I think 6 or 9 times.
I can’t remember. For my first
two years, I was on the Little Tigers (god how I wish I still had those team
pictures) and on the third year I was on the Little Packers. It was when I was on the Little Packers that
I started losing interest. I would show
up for practice every day and I always give my best. Even at 12 however, I felt that my best was
not good enough because I only got to play in barely 2 minutes at the end of
every game. I told my dad I wanted to
quit and he asked why. I told him why play a game that I’m not really getting
to play at all. He did the dad thing and
called the coach to voice my concerns and the coach said he felt I was too
small and didn’t want me to get hurt around the other players. That was it for me. I gave up. I quit. I never played another sport again. I still liked sports, and I still enjoyed
watching them and playing pickup games with my friends, but to be on a team
again it was just not going to happen.
There was one point between my
junior and senior year of high school my mind started to change about
that. I was talking to one of my classmates,
Mike Wetzel, about joining the football team and what it would take. He didn’t even bat an eye and said anyone
could make the team and to just join him for the team meeting at the end of the
school year that week. Mike never once
discouraged me about it. I had been
talking to him about it for weeks and all he ever did was really push for me to
get involved, give me advice, and always encouraged me in every positive way
that he could think of to really put my mind at ease about all of my misgivings. So, on the last day of school that year I
joined him in the team meeting. I did
notice a few faces look at me and I read their expressions to say, “You’re
kidding, right? What’s the nerd doing
here?” This was all going on in my head,
but who knew if that was actually true.
I already let my mind think what it wanted to think. After the meeting, Mike asked, “So, what do
you think? Are you going to play with us
and be a Moon Tiger?” Nope. I wasn’t.
My mind was made up in about 1 minute of sitting in that room. I just remember saying to Mike, “thanks for
trying to get me to do this, but I kept looking around this room and seeing a
bunch of people I can’t stand and don’t want to be around. These are the same people that always pick on
me and give me a hard time. I’m going to
pass.” He told me he understood and
thanked me for coming anyway. But after
all these years, I think I have to say thanks to Mike. In all my years after elementary school, when
I didn’t realize how different life became as a child when you hit the 7th
grade on up to the 12th, he was the first guy that really ever gave
me a shot at doing anything more the simply try to be the funny guy who most
people just saw as the dork. Thanks
Mike. I hope you are doing well in
life. Wherever you are I wanted you to
know, I’m giving something a shot. 26.2
miles.
And on
that note, I’ll get back to the task at hand.
Saturday started our training with Steel City Road Runners. We had the option to do 3, 6, 8, or 10
miles. I met up with a friend at his apartment
which is about a mile away from the SCRR headquarters. We jogged down to where everyone was meeting
and they had things set up just like a race.
There were vendors, refreshments, start line, paces, and a shit ton of
people. (Editor’s note: no one knows exactly how much a shit ton it, but we’re
looking at a couple of hundred people.)
I stuck with the 9:30 pace group and we ran pretty good. Half the group stopped at 3 miles while I was
signed on to do 6. Since I already did
one to get there, technically I was doing 7.
After 6, my friend and I just kept going. We finished the day with 11 miles. I felt fine keeping the pace I did, but by
the time I got to the 7th and 8th mile, my body did feel
I should start to slow down a little bit.
I didn’t, and just kept at that same pace. Overall, I felt it was a good test to see
what I can and cannot do. It’s not
really at matter of me telling myself I can’t do it, but listening to what my
body is telling me so that I don’t injure myself. This is only day one. We still have 18 weeks of running to do before
the big one, so listen to my body I will.
When all was said and done, it was a good day and a good run.
And, I’m
looking forward to the next 18 weeks.
Until
next time everyone……
#RunRinseRepeat,
#26point2forTeamLemieux #26miles26dedications
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