Pushing Ahead
In January of 2009 my wife looked at me from across the couch and said, “Let’s start running and train for a full marathon”. My response, being the 40-something semi-gadget laden couch potato, was one of surprise followed by an inconsiderate chuckle. No way was I going to: A. run in this weather and B. run in any weather because a marathon seemed like a silly goal to me. After some scowls from my wife and more conversation that pointed me to the fact that she was indeed serious, she also reminded me that I had elevated cholesterol lately and need to get into shape. And of course that I would someday thank her for pushing me in this direction. I acquiesced to at least give it a try and keep her company while she trained.
I am glad I did!
So it is now 2010, I intended to write this post AFTER the first marathon, but time has gotten away from me and little things have been getting in the way of blogging, which is OK. The little things in life are sometimes a lot bigger to someone else and we give them less credit than they probably deserve. So, again it is many months later and the lesson I got out of running this thing that I originally thought was a hare-brained idea is: Push ahead no matter what!
I will explain: My wife and I were running the Twin Cities Marathon together with our intention being to cross the finish line as a couple. At about 20 miles into the race, I suffered a pulled IT-Band. At the time I had no idea what I had just pulled, I just knew it hurt like heck and that I had to stop. My wife was devastated because she really wanted to finish this with me but I prodded her on stating that we have trained for several months, sweated, bled and cried in the process and that one of us has to finish! My wife slowly started running again and I assured her I would be OK and I would see her at the finish line either by crossing it or being wheeled there.
After she had turned the corner I began stretching my leg hoping that I could work out the strain and catch up to her. But as I continued to try and run the pain got worse and I knew I was not going to be able to run this marathon any longer. After a few more experiments in stretching, I discovered that I could walk on the leg at a rather fast pace with only minimal pain. I did some quick calculations in my head and started to fast-walk the remaining six miles that I had left knowing that if I kept a steady pace I would finish the marathon just in time.
And I did finish in time, with about 20 minutes to spare. Along the way I had a lot of encouragement from people I did not know and who I will never meet again. But it was those people and my desire to finish the race that got me pushing ahead to my goal, no matter what. When I crossed the line, my name was called out by the line announcer. My wife heard this and began crying because she then knew that I had earned the right to say I finished. Seeing her run to me with her smile mixed with tears was worth the 6 miles of pain.
It should be noted that I ran the last two-tenths of a mile of this race. It hurt like nothing I ever felt before, but in my mind I was thinking that only weaklings walk across a marathon finish line. True or not, I earned this: See my medal
In 2010 we are running Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth and the Twin Cities Marathon again. I will be running my own race this time and will be once again “Pushing Ahead” as I try to finish with the 4:45 group. I am sure there will be another blog post after these marathons and hopefully more pictures of medals too!
