The runners line up at the start of the race. I slink to the back of the pack. I try to make myself look invisible. I hunch over just waiting..... waiting for someone to come over and pull me out of the line. Waiting for somebody to shout.. "Hey YOU! Yes... YOU, Fat Girl! What are you doing here? This is a race for athletes.. not old, fat people!
Never mind that I'm not fat any more. Never mind that I have NEVER met ANYONE who behaved that way. Never mind that runners are, on the whole, fantastic people. It's my nightmare... my 50 years of programming... and I will keep racing until that nightmare goes away.
I missed all that athletic stuff when I was a kid. I didn't even like going outside.... I didn't play sports.. nothing, nada. Every year, I failed the President's physical fitness test. My peers were running around doing things and I was holed up somewhere with my nose in a book eating cheetos.
I tried as an adult, I really did. I worried about being overweight. I had a short fling with aerobics after child #2. Of course, then along came child #3 :-) I tried jogging and ended up with foot surgery. And I kept getting bigger. And then children #4 & 5... I was busy being mom. No more time to even worry about it... just go with it! Then I spent my time driving people to athletic events! I was team mom to everybody :-)
Eventually I did lose weight .. and, in an effort to keep the weight off, have become an athlete. Really! I started out with a short half mile walk. That was as far as I could go. But I committed to do it every day. Soon, it was 3/4 of a mile.... and then a mile.
I was just taking walks though. I didn't FEEL like an athlete until after I read a book by John Bingham.. The Courage to Start. (Check him out www.johnbingham.com) Reading that book coincided with a local 10K race. The funny thing is that I didn't even know how far 10K was :-) But in an insane moment, I decided that I had nothing to lose by trying. I signed up.
It was a crazy moment... and it took every bit of nerve I had to do this. And I might have skipped out except that a friend decided to do it with me. I promised to hook up with him at the race - so I had to go. I love the way that little every day events conspire to bring you to a whole new place in life.
At any rate, it was a small race at a military base. You may know this already - but I didn't... 10K is a little more than 6 miles. Well.... there were runners returning when I hit Mile Marker #1. Oh my.... I kept going. Mostly walking.. I don't run much. Everybody... and I mean everybody except my friend.... passed me eventually. My poor friend hadn't even walked in a long time and decided to catch a ride with the people at the end of the race (the ones wishing I was moving faster!)
Long story short.... it took my an hour and 24 minutes to complete... but I DID complete it! And, in a strange twist, I arrived in time to hear my name called. Dead last in the race but 2nd place for my AGE.. What a hoot! I was hooked!
That was my first race... and the ONLY time I won anything. But I have had a lot of fun and discovered that I LIKE to train for endurance races... even walking :-)
What would you like to try if you knew you couldn't fail?
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