Bad Feet & Wild Hair

Bad feet and a wild hair - two things that pretty much sum up my 30's. Huh? Well, you see, I had surgery on both of my feet in consecutive years. Between both surgeries, I ended up on crutches/off my feet for a total of about 6 months. As a result of these 2 years of pretty minimal activity, I was probably 30 pounds heavier and quite unfit. It wasn't that I was terribly active prior to the surgeries, but I was completely inactive following them! In February of 2002, with the help of a fabulous employee benefit account, I purchased a treadmill! This was a huge purchase for me and I was terrified I wouldn't use it. I remember friends/family saying it would become a clothes rack, as their own treadmills had become. Tell me I won't do something and I guess that lights my fire - I was absolutely determined it would not be buried under clothes. I WOULD use this thing! And so it began...this journey I could never have predicted and often don't even believe! I started to run. Baby steps. Very slowly, I began to lose a few pounds, but this goal became less about losing weight and more about being healthy, strong and fit.
Maybe it was June of that year, I received a post card from Team in Training, a program that raises funds for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. It was a simple postcard, promoting their program for a few upcoming marathons. One marathon, in particular, jumped out at me - the Walt Disney World Marathon. I honestly don't think I gave it much thought at all. On a complete wild hair (this is where "hair" from my title comes in...stay with me, ha ha)I was SOLD. I WOULD do this marathon. Could I??? Again, I recall people telling me I was crazy and it wouldn't happen. I also recall trying to drum up some fellow suckers to join me in this endeavor - that part didn't really work out so well.
The training program kicked off in August 2002. I wish blogging was popular then, because it would be great to have an entire account of this process, but alas, I do have some memories stored in the ol' noggen. My brother started out training with us. We would travel out south every saturday morning for the "long" training runs with the group. During the week we would do our shorter runs and cross training. I heard members of our training group talking about doing an Ironman in Carlsbad. Huh? What's that? I had no idea. Once I learned what an Ironman event entailed, I was in awe. Here I am working towards a 26.2 mile run, I can't even fathom adding a swim and bike to that. Bike? What's that? I don't own one.
I distinctly recall the first time I ran 6 miles, for some reason. I remember telling friends I needed to go to bed early and fuel properly, etc...I also remember wondering if I could actually run 6 miles. I could, and I (we) did! 6 miles turned into 10 and so on. We all signed up for the KC Humana River Crowne Plaza 1/2 marathon as part of our training. I'm fairly certain I may have run a 5k prior to that, but I know for sure that this - November 2, 2002 was my first 1/2 marathon. It was super cold that morning and, if I'm not mistaken, there was a bit of rain/freezing rain. My brother (Bill) and I ran this entire race together, making it a fantastic experience! Shortly after this run, Bill injured himself on a training run and had to bail out of the program. :-( I was sad, but determined to continue this mission. And, January 12, 2003 was mission accomplished! I did it. I ran my first marathon. 26.2 miles at Walt Disney World. Does it get any better than that? In fact, it does, but that's a much later part of this story.
This was exciting! I had run a marathon! For some people it is "check" and done. Not for me. I wanted more...what's next???

I'll admit, if you could see that treadmill now, there are a few clothing items hanging on it, but there weren't last night - I'm still running on that same treadmill (only when weather or time prevent me from getting outside) - I just did a training run on the ol' Nordic track last night and it was clothing-free!