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| My First Mini - 05.05.2007 |
In
2007, I wrote an article about my entry into the world of running. To my surprise, it was published in the
December 2007 issue of Women’s Health.
I know many folks are considering joining Lawrence County’s Stone to Stone running program this summer, and I thought resurrecting this article might give
some fire to someone on the fence about joining.
Additionally,
I appreciate the full-circle quality of rereading this article today. I mention my mentors in the “training group,”
and now I’m going to be one of those mentors.
If
you want to learn more about Stone to Stone, the program that will turn you into
a half marathoner, come to an informational call-out meeting at the Boys &
Girls Club of Lawrence County (2009 19th Street, Bedford, IN 47421), on Thursday,
June 27 at 6:00 P.M. See you there!
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I hate running.
For the first 27 years of my life,
this was my mantra. As a public school
student, I loathed lap running in P.E. As
an adult, I watched the local sweat-sodden road runners jogging through town and
thought, “Crazy.” Sure, running could keep
a gal fit, but there were other ways to stay healthy, right? Who on Earth would choose to run? For fun?
On purpose?
My life took an unexpected turn in
April 2003 when I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Amid all the digestive and kidney complications,
it occurred to me that to be healthy, I would have to introduce some kind of physical
fitness program into my lifestyle. I
began light weight training and walking programs. No running necessary.
While watching a news program a few
years later, I was drawn to a story about a plucky teenager who ran a marathon
for charity. She said, “If I can do it,
anyone can!” A momentary, “I could do
something like that,” flitted through my mind.
But I hate running.
Nonetheless, I kept thinking about
that teenager and her motivating statement that “anyone” could run a
marathon. I started slipping comments regarding
running into conversation with my family and friends, testing the waters of
their confidence in me. Most of them
gave me the same furrowed-brow, wrinkled-lip face that asked, “Are you
serious?” A few gave hesitant
encouragement after fleeting flickers of the previously mentioned facial
expression. My oldest stepson, however,
said, “I hear there’s going to be a training group organized for folks running
the Mini.”
The Mini. The half-marathon. The 13.1-mile race that includes a whip
around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The kickoff event for the 500 Festival.
The biggest half-marathon in the world with 35,000 participants.
Sign me up.
What kind of individual voluntarily
enlists to complete a 13.1-mile race when she can’t even run all the way around
a quarter-mile track? Why I took that
leap of faith is not easy to explain. It
might have been to prove something to the shocked-faced friends who thought I
couldn’t do it. It might have been to
prove something to myself. Ultimately, I
think it was the overwhelming urge to shut up, suck it up, and go for it: to
force myself to attain a goal that seemed impossible to reach.
My first training run fell six
months before the 500 Festival Mini Marathon.
Terrified of my commitment, I watched as those crazy road runners whom I’d
seen only through confused eyes, began to arrive; they were going to be my
mentors. When I could run only a short
two minutes, they didn’t make fun of me.
We walked until I could run again.
This pattern continued for days until I ran my first mile without
stopping. My mentors celebrated with me
as if my accomplishment were profound.
Because it was.
I didn’t need extrinsic motivation
to stick to my training schedule.
Throughout my early runs, I discovered that the Crohn’s pain in my
abdomen lessened as I ran. Long distance
runs rendered me pain free. Running
brought more energy, more zest for life, more healthiness, and a more positive
attitude.
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| Getting ready to enter the corral in 2007 |
I ran in the rain. I ran in the wind. I ran in the snow. One
morning, my eyelids froze shut from the bitter cold. Finally, I ran two miles. Then three.
Five. Eight. Ten.
Family and friends did double-takes, then honked and waved in disbelief
as I pounded the city’s wintry streets on my quest to accomplish the
impossible.
The morning of the Mini dawned heavy
with humidity. Standing in Corral G, a
prime starting spot I’d earned by posting a qualifying pace in a local training
series run, it occurred to me that six months of physical and mental preparation
culminated to this moment. The
Crohn’s-diseased girl who hated running was about to embark on a 13.1-mile jogging
journey with nothing but a prayer, an iPod, and a will of steel. Nevertheless, I was shaking in my worn
running shoes.
Due to the large volume of runners,
my Corral remained motionless when the gun sounded—not the climactic start I’d expected. I finally reached the start line six minutes
after the gun, and took off at my pace.
For the first few miles, runners
flew past me as if I were a rock on the road.
Self-talk helped me focus: “Run your race. Run your pace. Don’t stop.”
By Mile Marker 5, I was passing those fleet-footed runners.
As I wound through Indianapolis’s
downtown and residential streets, masses of people stood on the sidewalks
cheering on the runners. Bands playing
upbeat tunes lined the streets. Welcome
as water-stations, these encouragers gave me much needed refueling. My self-talk continued, “Don’t stop. Don’t stop.”
I began to weaken after Mile Marker
7, which was on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. My ankles ached from the banked track, and I
missed the cheering crowds who weren’t allowed inside the Speedway’s looming
walls. My mantra echoed in my head with
each step. “Don’t. Stop.
Don’t. Stop.”
The sighting of an IndyCar racer at
Mile Marker 8 gave me an adrenaline boost, as did the long-awaited exit from
the track and the encouragement of a friend who reached out to slap my hand on
Mile 9. At Mile 10, a man in the crowd shouted
to me, “You from Indiana? We don’t stop
in Indiana!” I found another friend at
Mile 11. With twelve miles behind me, I
entered the Victory Mile on New
York Street
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| Finishing the 2007 Mini |
“DON’T! STOP!
DON’T! STOP!”
With the finish line steps away, I
saw a pink sign with my name thrust into the air. It was held by the hands of my mother, who
was screaming my name. My husband’s face
was not visible behind the lens of his camera.
My father clapped his hands until they were hot, and he cried a little
too, I think. Also weeping tears of joy,
I hit the finish line with my arms raised in triumph. My husband said I was one of the only runners
who finished smiling.
I hadn’t stopped. I’d had every opportunity to give up, drop
out. But for two hours, 18 minutes, and
22 seconds, I ran—without stopping. I
crossed the finish line in 13,743rd place. All around me were men, women, and children
staring at each other in stunned disbelief at what we had all just done. We had just run a half-marathon.
I
ran a half-marathon.
Back home in southern Indiana, I
continue to train through the city’s streets.
Dismayed drivers, in my old position, look in disbelief at this sweat-sodden
road runner on a solo mission along Hoosier hills, and think, “Crazy.” That’s OK, because they don’t know what I
know. I choose to run, for fun, on
purpose, because running has shown me that nothing is impossible, and
impossible is nothing.
Because I love running.
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| Starting my 10th Indy Mini in 2019 |
