like a half marathon
WARNING: this became long.
So today I went to a costume party. Well it was the Newberg art walk and it was a Halloween theme at the most important stop, Mode Du Jour. So I went in costume, I dressed up as a "Half- Marathoner". I wore my running capri's, running shoes, official race shirt, a lamented copy of my race number pinned to my shirt, my medal, my ipod on my arm, you know the whole nine yards. So mom and I go out to dinner and with the exception of the ipod I am still in costume, and someone stops in the restaurant to ask if I had done that today, and when I say "no I walked it in June" He says "well still congratulations, that is so cool".
Why did it take a total stranger to remind that it is so cool that I walked a half marathon? Yeah so what I didn't run, who cares that it wasn't a whole marathon. I walked 13.1 miles straight without stopping. Plus the walking from the parking lot to the stadium to the starting point, and then from the finish line to burger line back to the car. It really is cool. Yeah in the moment it wasn't the most fun experience I have ever had, but it was pretty dang cool to cross that finish line with my time in big neon numbers above and someone taking my picture and someone putting a medal around my neck (a way cool colored medal with a bright green ribbon). In the moment even though the crowds were dissipated I felt like a winner, cause I was. I did something I didn't think I could do. I trained for something for months, through pain, through setbacks. I discovered that quitting in the middle of the event wasn't really an option cause it was in the country, it's not like I could just walk off the course to a park bench and then hop in the corner coffee shop. Only thing around was farms and highway, safer to stick to the course and keep going.And trust me, mile 9- I really, really wanted to quit. At least on the course there are aid stations, and some of them even had ambulances. And on the course there were people cheering on the sidelines. little kids out in their strollers sleeping while dad cheers on his wife getting back in her pre baby running shape, locals and their dogs at the end of the driveway watching the "parade", friends who show up a specific cross point with clown wigs and shoes and posters and fruit and who walk with you for a few hundred steps. And even if they don't know you from Adam they cheer for you, or at least for the person next to you and you can bask in the sound of cheering.
And I have discovered Weight Watchers is like a half-marathon. Actually more like one of the multi day Ultra-Marathons. Something I need to train for, something that will have setbacks, something that you have to keep moving after the finish line. every mile there was a marker telling us how far we had gone, those are weigh ins (and we get little gold stickers for those), We have aid stations called weekly meetings. We cheer each other on, we celebrate the half way point, the "10k" marker, the finish line. You have a bad mile/weigh in you can make it up next mile cause there is a down hill or shade.
So I will keep "training" on this "half-marathon",and I will stop at the aid stations and get refreshed. I will slow down in the shade to catch my breath and then head out anew. And while maybe we don't have a burger and beer after wards, we could if we wanted.
Oh and next year, I am paying people to hang out at miles 9 and 11 with really big signs cheering me on.
So today I went to a costume party. Well it was the Newberg art walk and it was a Halloween theme at the most important stop, Mode Du Jour. So I went in costume, I dressed up as a "Half- Marathoner". I wore my running capri's, running shoes, official race shirt, a lamented copy of my race number pinned to my shirt, my medal, my ipod on my arm, you know the whole nine yards. So mom and I go out to dinner and with the exception of the ipod I am still in costume, and someone stops in the restaurant to ask if I had done that today, and when I say "no I walked it in June" He says "well still congratulations, that is so cool".
Why did it take a total stranger to remind that it is so cool that I walked a half marathon? Yeah so what I didn't run, who cares that it wasn't a whole marathon. I walked 13.1 miles straight without stopping. Plus the walking from the parking lot to the stadium to the starting point, and then from the finish line to burger line back to the car. It really is cool. Yeah in the moment it wasn't the most fun experience I have ever had, but it was pretty dang cool to cross that finish line with my time in big neon numbers above and someone taking my picture and someone putting a medal around my neck (a way cool colored medal with a bright green ribbon). In the moment even though the crowds were dissipated I felt like a winner, cause I was. I did something I didn't think I could do. I trained for something for months, through pain, through setbacks. I discovered that quitting in the middle of the event wasn't really an option cause it was in the country, it's not like I could just walk off the course to a park bench and then hop in the corner coffee shop. Only thing around was farms and highway, safer to stick to the course and keep going.And trust me, mile 9- I really, really wanted to quit. At least on the course there are aid stations, and some of them even had ambulances. And on the course there were people cheering on the sidelines. little kids out in their strollers sleeping while dad cheers on his wife getting back in her pre baby running shape, locals and their dogs at the end of the driveway watching the "parade", friends who show up a specific cross point with clown wigs and shoes and posters and fruit and who walk with you for a few hundred steps. And even if they don't know you from Adam they cheer for you, or at least for the person next to you and you can bask in the sound of cheering.
And I have discovered Weight Watchers is like a half-marathon. Actually more like one of the multi day Ultra-Marathons. Something I need to train for, something that will have setbacks, something that you have to keep moving after the finish line. every mile there was a marker telling us how far we had gone, those are weigh ins (and we get little gold stickers for those), We have aid stations called weekly meetings. We cheer each other on, we celebrate the half way point, the "10k" marker, the finish line. You have a bad mile/weigh in you can make it up next mile cause there is a down hill or shade.
So I will keep "training" on this "half-marathon",and I will stop at the aid stations and get refreshed. I will slow down in the shade to catch my breath and then head out anew. And while maybe we don't have a burger and beer after wards, we could if we wanted.
Oh and next year, I am paying people to hang out at miles 9 and 11 with really big signs cheering me on.
Wow, what a post! It's awesome, I love how you use the analogy of a marathon to describe the journey we are taking with WW.
ReplyDeleteI have been contemplating joining you for the Helvetia Half-Marathon next year. I really don't like walking that much, but I would like to have a goal to work towards.
Hope your week is going well.