Early in April, three things happened. First, I stepped on a scale. It may come as a surprise that I had been running for more than 6 months and had not stepped on a scale, but it's true. I have already said, my intention was not to lose weight. I was not in the habit of regularly weighing myself. (it gets a little old when the number makes you want to cry). One morning, I noted that my pants were fitting quite differently, and I decided that I should go ahead and try the scale. To my surprise, I was down nearly 25 pounds! Suddenly I had a concrete representation of all my hard work! I was inspired.
Second, I was picking up Cru from preschool after a run, and my friend Heather approached me. She and our friend Ryan had started running a couple of weeks before, and a little seed had been planted in Heather. The little marathon seed. But if she was going to go down that crazy road, she wasn't going down it alone. So she took us down with her. Down that road, I mean. When she first proposed the idea, I told her "no". Straight up "no". Not a chance. Not going to happen. I could never keep up with Ryan and Heather. Neither of them had an ounce of fat on them, and they were both taller than me. (I have always had a fear of running with people who are taller than I am).
Then, finally, the Boston Marathon happened. I, like everyone else, was horrified at the tragedy that was the bombing of the Boston Marathon finish line. But in addition to the sadness at the loss of life, I felt another sense of loss. I felt for those athletes who had trained and worked to qualify for the Boston. And then trained and worked to prepare for it. And then to have your celebration tainted by terror? Or to have your finish taken from you altogether? I was so sad for them! After a couple of days of media coverage, the hero stories started to emerge. Someone posted a slideshow of the signs of strength and hope in the wake of the Boston bombing. This slideshow focused on the good things that happened that day...either before the bombing, or because of it. It focused on the inspirational stories. One particular photo struck me.
I was humbled. How could I use my height as a reason for not committing to a marathon? My pep talk to myself went a little something like this, "Seriously, Megan? You don't want to run a marathon because it will be too hard? Suck it up and do something hard, you dork!"
My birthday is at the end of April. My birthday present to myself was registering for the October St. George Marathon.
If you want to learn more about the two dwarfs who ran the Boston Marathon, read here and here.
So I guess I can't use the excuse of being short anymore either. ;) Oh, man. I would LOVE to step on the scale and see a 25 pound weight loss. How nice to know all that hard work had paid off (in more ways than one)! You look great!
ReplyDelete