30 Days
30 days from today, I will be standing at a starting line in Los Angeles, California ready to start my first half marathon. To say this has me a little emotional, especially considering the path that I have taken to get to this point. It's been a path that God has used not only to stretch me physically but also shape my faith in Him. To choose a different, or easier path, while I would have preferred I would not (at least given if I finish the race :) ) trade in.
I have not really always been a "runner" - I kind of resisted this whole thing growing up because I equated "running" with punishment... more specifically the PE coach's tendency to make my fat butt run laps when I wasn't following orders (I didn't really like PE growing up, if you can tell). I liked to play sports, but I didn't really like practice and discipline. Needless to say, I played a fair amount of pickup, intramural, and "church league" sports but didn't really compete, even though I love to compete.
My friend Craig got me started running when I first moved to Houston (into the city) when I was 23. It was a follow up to my "lose the Freshman 15," plus, "lose the Professional 10," plus just lose the nagging weight that came from eating a lot of fried food and gravy growing up (not that I blame my upbringing for that, I loved gravy... still do... lol). After about 4" off my waist and 35 pounds gone, I really committed myself to working out and staying in shape, and Craig would take me out to Memorial Park (still one of my favorite places to run) and would keep on me to not give up. Eventually it caught on as one of my preferred ways to exercise. I eventually started running in an occasional 5K.
When I moved to Atlanta, my passion for running had grown. When I lived in Austin for a year, running the loop around Town Lake was really my only workout option (not a bad one, by the way) because I didn't have a gym being in a nomadic state at that stage of my life... also running was also one of my coping mechanisms for getting over the disappointment of the ending of my last relationship (which is a huge reason for my 5K personal record (PR) in 2003 at the "Hoosiers Outrun Cancer" race in Bloomington during my 2nd year in MBA school... I still have the t-shirt from that race). So of course the Peachtree Road Race is a huge deal in the ATL and a famous race, so I obviously wanted to run it, and eventually ran it in 2006 (didn't run it in '05 after I moved here) and have run in the last 5 Peachtrees now.
So - to the Half Marathon - for many years a lot of people have tried to talk me into running a marathon, but I've resisted just because of the commitment level (and maybe the Houston heat indexes). I've never run more than 7 miles (and that was only once on a wild-hair MP run) before, and didn't think that 26.2 was in me, but figured that I'd do a half... someday. Well, "someday" sometimes never comes... and the way I was going for a while you may have made that judgement. I ran for exercise, not necessarily for fun even though at times it was fun. However, a year and a half ago I hosted Craig and another friend of ours, Sam, for a "Mancation" over the Fourth of July in 2009 and I got Craig & Sam numbers to the Peachtree Road Race. Craig and I did the race stride for stride the entire way, and in a way that was deja vu from those first runs down Memorial Park in February 1997 (okay, I'm aging myself now), I was somehow motivated by the experience to "do something" and sign up for a half, and shortly after in concert with a couple of friends (Bryant, Jim, and Charlie) I signed up for and started training for the 2009 Silver Comet 1/2 Marathon on Halloween.
And what happened in that time, and a lot of long runs, and overcoming barriers that only existed in my mind... I truly fell in love with this sport. Who would have known? I was doing these 7, 8, and 9 mile long runs on the Alpharetta Greenway, Virginia Highlands, and Stone Mountain to my iPod or with a friend and really getting into this "zone" that all runners talk about but until you really start long distance running you don't really "get." As October rolled around, a sense of expectation and excitement hit me as Halloween was approaching. And then...
I got a case of IT-band syndrome after running a Saturday five-miler, and then, on the weekend before the race, a 12 mile last long run, with one mile left to go, I attempt to stretch out my leg, feel a "pop," and have an immediate pain sensation in my left knee. I limp back to my car, drive to Starbucks near downtown Alpharetta (I was on the meadowy section of the Greenway when this happened), to grab a coffee, see a friend and am told about the massive swelling that's appearing in my left knee. I went to see a sports doctor the following week and got the bad news... it's injured and I cannot run the race on Saturday. I was devastated. But I wasn't willing to give up. I tried to rehab my leg for 2 months but unfortunately it didn't heal the injury, to the point that at least one friend told me that she was worried if I would ever run again. So I finally went to get it checked out, got the MRI, and...
On January 29, 2010, had surgery to repair a medium-sized miniscus tear that I got on that Alpharetta Greenway run. I was hopeful that I'd be back up and running in 2 to 3 months. And as a result, I signed up for the LA Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon when I was at home recovering and trading emails with my b-school buddy Derek about a couple of weeks after the surgery.
On April 1st, I went in to see Dr. Wertheim for my final checkup and was given clearance to start running again. As a birthday present to myself, I made April 3 the first run since the injury. Things went well, so I thought, but my rehab wasn't complete and after a very painful third run in the middle of April, I called the doctor who ordered physical therapy.
And that was grace. In the physical therapy sessions, I found out a lot of the ways that I had not taken care of myself before and was coached into recovery (and maintenance of my body) in an encouraging and enlightening way. I was humbled. I was frustrated by the slow progress. But at the end of the day I did things the way I thought they should have been done and it wasn't working, so I was completely willing to give the lead over to someone who knew the way to go. And thankfully, 2 months later I started back up, slowly, and got stronger, and stronger... and now have run 3 10K races and have built my endurance back up to 9 miles. And now, 30 days before the race, with humility, prayer, and caution, I am entering the home stretch as a flight to LA to see my good friend and run the biggest race of my life to this point with him. It means a good deal that I'm getting to run this race with him, and I'm excited to hear that starting gun, to get that 1/2 Marathon race number, and to begin in the race.
Not that it's been smooth sailing. I am fighting off a little bit of heel pain in this last stretch and have been cross-training for a week and probably won't start running again till mid-next week or next Saturday (gotta take care of the body, right? :) ). To tell you the truth, this race is more about completing a journey than about getting a PR. And in fact, this race, no matter how slow my time is, will be a PR :-). And, it's about God's redeeming and restoring power in my life, which I give him praise for often, not only for giving me the grace to run and stay healthy, but for all of the ways that he breathes life into the dead places in my world and makes it all beautiful. And I have plenty of stories for this... God has put me into the great adventure, the sacred romance, the great story of His working in the world - and that is all grace. All of it.
And interestingly enough, 30 days from today is the one year anniversary of the Greenway injury. To the day.
I imagine that you may see a scream of joy, or a tear, or a fist pump or few... when I see that finish line. I don't think I'll be able to hold back the emotion, even for a bit.
A little taste of what's to come...
I have not really always been a "runner" - I kind of resisted this whole thing growing up because I equated "running" with punishment... more specifically the PE coach's tendency to make my fat butt run laps when I wasn't following orders (I didn't really like PE growing up, if you can tell). I liked to play sports, but I didn't really like practice and discipline. Needless to say, I played a fair amount of pickup, intramural, and "church league" sports but didn't really compete, even though I love to compete.
My friend Craig got me started running when I first moved to Houston (into the city) when I was 23. It was a follow up to my "lose the Freshman 15," plus, "lose the Professional 10," plus just lose the nagging weight that came from eating a lot of fried food and gravy growing up (not that I blame my upbringing for that, I loved gravy... still do... lol). After about 4" off my waist and 35 pounds gone, I really committed myself to working out and staying in shape, and Craig would take me out to Memorial Park (still one of my favorite places to run) and would keep on me to not give up. Eventually it caught on as one of my preferred ways to exercise. I eventually started running in an occasional 5K.
When I moved to Atlanta, my passion for running had grown. When I lived in Austin for a year, running the loop around Town Lake was really my only workout option (not a bad one, by the way) because I didn't have a gym being in a nomadic state at that stage of my life... also running was also one of my coping mechanisms for getting over the disappointment of the ending of my last relationship (which is a huge reason for my 5K personal record (PR) in 2003 at the "Hoosiers Outrun Cancer" race in Bloomington during my 2nd year in MBA school... I still have the t-shirt from that race). So of course the Peachtree Road Race is a huge deal in the ATL and a famous race, so I obviously wanted to run it, and eventually ran it in 2006 (didn't run it in '05 after I moved here) and have run in the last 5 Peachtrees now.
So - to the Half Marathon - for many years a lot of people have tried to talk me into running a marathon, but I've resisted just because of the commitment level (and maybe the Houston heat indexes). I've never run more than 7 miles (and that was only once on a wild-hair MP run) before, and didn't think that 26.2 was in me, but figured that I'd do a half... someday. Well, "someday" sometimes never comes... and the way I was going for a while you may have made that judgement. I ran for exercise, not necessarily for fun even though at times it was fun. However, a year and a half ago I hosted Craig and another friend of ours, Sam, for a "Mancation" over the Fourth of July in 2009 and I got Craig & Sam numbers to the Peachtree Road Race. Craig and I did the race stride for stride the entire way, and in a way that was deja vu from those first runs down Memorial Park in February 1997 (okay, I'm aging myself now), I was somehow motivated by the experience to "do something" and sign up for a half, and shortly after in concert with a couple of friends (Bryant, Jim, and Charlie) I signed up for and started training for the 2009 Silver Comet 1/2 Marathon on Halloween.
And what happened in that time, and a lot of long runs, and overcoming barriers that only existed in my mind... I truly fell in love with this sport. Who would have known? I was doing these 7, 8, and 9 mile long runs on the Alpharetta Greenway, Virginia Highlands, and Stone Mountain to my iPod or with a friend and really getting into this "zone" that all runners talk about but until you really start long distance running you don't really "get." As October rolled around, a sense of expectation and excitement hit me as Halloween was approaching. And then...
I got a case of IT-band syndrome after running a Saturday five-miler, and then, on the weekend before the race, a 12 mile last long run, with one mile left to go, I attempt to stretch out my leg, feel a "pop," and have an immediate pain sensation in my left knee. I limp back to my car, drive to Starbucks near downtown Alpharetta (I was on the meadowy section of the Greenway when this happened), to grab a coffee, see a friend and am told about the massive swelling that's appearing in my left knee. I went to see a sports doctor the following week and got the bad news... it's injured and I cannot run the race on Saturday. I was devastated. But I wasn't willing to give up. I tried to rehab my leg for 2 months but unfortunately it didn't heal the injury, to the point that at least one friend told me that she was worried if I would ever run again. So I finally went to get it checked out, got the MRI, and...
On January 29, 2010, had surgery to repair a medium-sized miniscus tear that I got on that Alpharetta Greenway run. I was hopeful that I'd be back up and running in 2 to 3 months. And as a result, I signed up for the LA Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon when I was at home recovering and trading emails with my b-school buddy Derek about a couple of weeks after the surgery.
On April 1st, I went in to see Dr. Wertheim for my final checkup and was given clearance to start running again. As a birthday present to myself, I made April 3 the first run since the injury. Things went well, so I thought, but my rehab wasn't complete and after a very painful third run in the middle of April, I called the doctor who ordered physical therapy.
And that was grace. In the physical therapy sessions, I found out a lot of the ways that I had not taken care of myself before and was coached into recovery (and maintenance of my body) in an encouraging and enlightening way. I was humbled. I was frustrated by the slow progress. But at the end of the day I did things the way I thought they should have been done and it wasn't working, so I was completely willing to give the lead over to someone who knew the way to go. And thankfully, 2 months later I started back up, slowly, and got stronger, and stronger... and now have run 3 10K races and have built my endurance back up to 9 miles. And now, 30 days before the race, with humility, prayer, and caution, I am entering the home stretch as a flight to LA to see my good friend and run the biggest race of my life to this point with him. It means a good deal that I'm getting to run this race with him, and I'm excited to hear that starting gun, to get that 1/2 Marathon race number, and to begin in the race.
Not that it's been smooth sailing. I am fighting off a little bit of heel pain in this last stretch and have been cross-training for a week and probably won't start running again till mid-next week or next Saturday (gotta take care of the body, right? :) ). To tell you the truth, this race is more about completing a journey than about getting a PR. And in fact, this race, no matter how slow my time is, will be a PR :-). And, it's about God's redeeming and restoring power in my life, which I give him praise for often, not only for giving me the grace to run and stay healthy, but for all of the ways that he breathes life into the dead places in my world and makes it all beautiful. And I have plenty of stories for this... God has put me into the great adventure, the sacred romance, the great story of His working in the world - and that is all grace. All of it.
And interestingly enough, 30 days from today is the one year anniversary of the Greenway injury. To the day.
I imagine that you may see a scream of joy, or a tear, or a fist pump or few... when I see that finish line. I don't think I'll be able to hold back the emotion, even for a bit.
A little taste of what's to come...
- Because this isn't the last race :-) - I have ambitions to build on and grow from this experience - like the 2011 ING??? :)
- And ultimately, the Apostle Paul likened our God-glorifying life, if we value Christ and God's glory, to completing a race. At least he did for his own... so I definitely envision the ultimate finish to the race and that "well done" when I think of finishing something as "small" as a half marathon.
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