Hurts So Good

WE DID IT!

Yes­ter­day, my wife and I both ran our first 1/2 marathon — The Nation­wide Bet­ter Health Colum­bus 1/2 Marathon.  We were joined the whole way by our friends Dana & Patty Ran­dall,  Colum­bus natives and also neo­phytes to the 13.1 mile jour­ney.  The day could not have been more per­fect.  Today I sim­ply ache from a phys­i­cal stand­point.  My feet throb, my mus­cles are sore, and my aging knees crackle with each and every step.  “Oh the sweet pain of lac­tic acid fer­men­ta­tion, how I have missed you.”  Every twinge makes me wince a lit­tle and smile a lot.   I know that in another day or two, phys­i­cally I will be back to my old self.  Men­tally on the other hand, I am rid­ing a new high.  One that comes from accom­plish­ing a goal.

It was just this spring that my wife and I began jog­ging.  I started with a walk / run pro­gram, and she just hit the side­walks run­ning.  We did not even run our first (and only to date) 5k race until the mid­dle of the sum­mer.  That day in July, we were mostly sur­rounded by highly skilled cross coun­try run­ners from UD and area high schools — all of whom ran cir­cles around us old folks.  It was great to run the race, but a lit­tle daunt­ing to do it with so many fast, young, ener­getic peo­ple.  Still, shortly after that day, we decided that next up would be run­ning a 1/2 marathon — Colum­bus fit the bill.

Well shortly there­after, we roped in Dana & Patty, and it was all set.  We would run the Colum­bus 1/2 marathon together.  With plans in place, it then became about get­ting pre­pared for race day with run after run of train­ing.  Things did not go exactly as planned, as I dealt with mus­cle pulls (run­ning away from bees in fear), bad weather,  and other unex­pected inter­rup­tions that could have eas­ily pro­vided us with excuses to quit.  Hap­pily, we all forged on, and by race day every­one was ready.

The race itself was great.  It was in the high 30’s when we started at 7:30am, and it only took a few min­utes to get accli­mated to the tem­per­a­ture.  The 4 of us kept a nice steady pace of about 11:00 min­utes per mile the whole way.  Nope, we did not break any speed records, but that was not the point. As they say at Nike, our motto was “just do it.”  Colum­bus is a great city, and we got to see some beau­ti­ful neigh­bor­hoods — Bex­ley, Ger­man Vil­lage, Brew­ery Dis­trict and some oth­ers.  All along the way we were greeted by bands, race vol­un­teers, and friendly folks who encour­aged us to keep on going.  We even said hello to Gov­er­nor Ted Strick­land, who was out on his back lawn wav­ing and shout­ing words of encour­age­ment to pass­ing run­ners.  Thanks to all who helped keep us mov­ing ahead.

At the end of 2 hours and 25 min­utes, we com­pleted our jour­ney north on high street, turned left, and crossed the fin­ish line — phys­i­cally spent and emo­tion­ally exu­ber­ant.   We imme­di­ately pro­ceeded to devour the free bananas, bagels, dough­nuts, chips, and rice krispy treats that they had wait­ing for us on the other side of the line.  Not since 2:30am in col­lege has food tasted so good. We exchanged hugs with fam­ily mem­bers who came to sup­port us, smiled for pic­tures, hob­bled back to the car, and made a bee line for Bob Evans, where I made quick work of a stack of pan­cakes, scram­bled eggs, bacon, home fries, and cof­fee.  So much for get­ting healthy…

After our feast, we came home and col­lapsed.  Colleen and I had been up since 4:00am, dri­ven to Colum­bus and back, run 13.1 miles, and com­pleted a goal that not long ago seemed com­pletely crazy.  Thanks to Colleen’s sis­ter for watch­ing the kids, thus allow­ing us to get some much needed recov­ery time.  The kids came home in the evening and thank­fully gave us hugs and kisses and went right to bed.

That brings me to today.  My body aches, but I can say “I did it!’  The abil­ity to say those words far out­weighs any tem­po­rary pain I am endur­ing today.   Already, I am start­ing to plan what is next on the list.  Not sure if I am going to do the 26.2 next year or if I am going to try to do another 1/2 marathon and increase the pace a lit­tle.  With win­ter approach­ing here in the Buck­eye state, it will be a lit­tle while either way.

To all who offered encour­age­ment, Thanks!  Espe­cially, thanks to my wife Colleen, who moti­vates me to be a bet­ter man each and every day.  It is great to know I ran a 13.1 miles, but the expe­ri­ence of doing it together will stay with me forever.