On Sunday morning I could hear my phone chime from far beneath the covers. It was 8 a.m. and my friend Katie was letting me know that she and her husband John were en route to the start of the St. Luke's Half-Marathon, in which John would be running. The start line was a block from my house, and for the past 30 minutes I had been trying to ignore the bubbly voices streaming past my bedroom window. I agreed to meet Katie - after a big cup of coffee - at the finish line.
Once upon a time, I ran my first 5k at this very race. After taking a "Beginning Running" class (yes, we all have to start somewhere) I signed up. I tackled a few more, but never hit my stride, excuse the pun. The races provided good motivation for me, not because I wanted to break a PR, but because I simply wanted to cross the finish line, and to do so I had to log the hours in training.
A few years ago I was even inspired to walk a full marathon. I coaxed my friend Leah into joining me and the two of us trained by walking hours on end. We finished the Hartford Marathon in just over 7 hours and it's safe to say I will never, ever walk (nor run) another marathon in this lifetime. I was frustrated that I didn't lose weight during the training process, but I did gain strength and endurance. It also gave me the chance to get to know Leah much better. Walking 10 or 15 miles at a stretch gives you the time to talk that you can never quite do over the occasional lunch or happy hour. I'm sure she was cursing me under her breath on more than one occasion though!
Inspired by seeing John cross the finish line on Sunday, and hearing my friend Michelle recount her first-ever 5k, I began thinking about what comes next. Having a big goal helps motivate me and distract me from weight-loss tunnel vision. It's easier to think about a race than a scale. I started looking online for women's triathlons last night. This morning I checked my email and saw a message from Leah:
Subject: My Two Bucket List Goals for Fitness - Complete a Triathlon and Backpack a Section of the Appalachian trail - Want to join!
What are the chances? So now I'm thinking, can I complete a triathlon?
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You could totally do a triathlon! They do have different levels, so you could work your way up.
ReplyDeleteSprint (750 m swim, 20 km bike, 5 km run), Olympic distance (1.5 km swim, 40 km ride, 10 km run), the Long Course (1.9 km swim, 90 km ride, 21.1 km run, such as the Half Ironman), and Ultra Distance (3.8 km swim, 180 km ride, and a marathon: 42.2 km run - Ironman).
and when you find a good one...I would be right there with you. I LOVED doing the ones I did!
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SheRox welcomes women of levels. Aug. 1 in Philly ... plenty of time to train. :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sheroxtri.com/