I am not a runner. Seriously. I was the teen who did cross county to hang out with my friends. Our long run days consisted of us running to the park, hanging out for half an hour, and then running back to school. (Sorry coach!)
10 years later and running was still basically run to live well, not live to run well. Something like a marathon wasn’t even in my orbit.
Then I saw this ad.
Shortly after, I signed up for Grandma’s Marathon, started training…and then pretty quickly stopped training. I couldn’t do this. What was I thinking? I mentally dropped out and went on with life.
Then the week of the marathon, I was out with friends and they discover I had registered for the race.
“You have to do it.”
That video clanged in my head. I could do this. I didn’t need to run the whole thing, I didn’t even need to finish, I just had to try. So I did.
I did it.
Did I cross the finish line as volunteers tore down banners and removed barricades? Of course. Did I end up walking 16.2 miles? Oh yeah. Did I tie with a woman with two broken bones in her foot? You know it.
You know what? I didn’t care. All that mattered was that I could technically say I had done a marathon.
Just do it, friends.*
*Weirdly enough, your doctor and physical therapist do not recommend you attempt a marathon (even walking) without training.
