Are we the stupidest people in the world? Those were the words I asked myself as Wes and I stood in line for the port -a -potty in the 43 degree weather at 6:50 am this past Sunday. I decided the answer was quite possibly yes, but at least we were in good company - there were 14,998 other crazy people out there with us!
That's right, we headed to the starting line of the ING Georgia Marathon/Half Marathon on Sunday in the coldest weather we have experienced in 3 years (hey, we live in South Florida!), and the huge possibility that it might start raining at any moment. I wore 4 shirts and my teeth were still chattering at an alarming rate. A funny thing happened though. The gun went off, we started running (well, technically we walked for 18 minutes until we reached the starting line), and pretty soon I forgot to be miserable. We were starting the beginning of a 13.1 mile journey through downtown Atlanta and it felt good! It is so cool to be running through city streets usually filled with noise and chaos and hear nothing but the sound of thousands of running shoes hitting the pavement simultaneously. Wes and I had a blast doing this run. We saw parts of Atlanta that were beautiful and we had great conversation and before we knew it we were seeing signs that said 1 mile to go. Now, I'm not saying it wasn't hard (it was), but the satisfaction of completing something we had been working so hard for was really cool. We finished in exactly the time we estimated when we signed up: 2:30:02. We would have been under 2:30 easily, but the hills threw us for a loop. I had ended up walking a good bit around mile 11 as my calves were screaming for mercy. Next time, with a little less walking, we will be faster!
The cool thing about this race was that I finally realized what it was that made me decide to like running so much. For those of you who don't know, I used to detest running. I only started doing it after Noah was born to lose weight. It wasn't until I entered a race that I began liking the sport. This Sunday I realized that it is the sense of community that running offers that I have fallen in love with. It is amazing to wake up and go join thousands of strangers in the pursuit of a common goal. It doesn't seem to matter who you are or where you come from - as long as you have pinned on your bib number and rubbed on your body glide you're in the club, no questions asked. People you would ordinarily never speak to suddenly become like brothers and sisters on your journey. People help each other, and cheer for each other, and celebrate together at the end. Because of the one commonality, all the other glaring differences cease to matter. It is what I imagine eternity will be like with other believers, and something I wish that I saw more of on a day to day basis here on earth.
Besides, if that doesn't convince you running is great, this might: I burned 1300 calories on Sunday morning and ate pizza, ice cream, doughnuts, and fries guilt free! How's that for a good reason to run!
That's right, we headed to the starting line of the ING Georgia Marathon/Half Marathon on Sunday in the coldest weather we have experienced in 3 years (hey, we live in South Florida!), and the huge possibility that it might start raining at any moment. I wore 4 shirts and my teeth were still chattering at an alarming rate. A funny thing happened though. The gun went off, we started running (well, technically we walked for 18 minutes until we reached the starting line), and pretty soon I forgot to be miserable. We were starting the beginning of a 13.1 mile journey through downtown Atlanta and it felt good! It is so cool to be running through city streets usually filled with noise and chaos and hear nothing but the sound of thousands of running shoes hitting the pavement simultaneously. Wes and I had a blast doing this run. We saw parts of Atlanta that were beautiful and we had great conversation and before we knew it we were seeing signs that said 1 mile to go. Now, I'm not saying it wasn't hard (it was), but the satisfaction of completing something we had been working so hard for was really cool. We finished in exactly the time we estimated when we signed up: 2:30:02. We would have been under 2:30 easily, but the hills threw us for a loop. I had ended up walking a good bit around mile 11 as my calves were screaming for mercy. Next time, with a little less walking, we will be faster!
The cool thing about this race was that I finally realized what it was that made me decide to like running so much. For those of you who don't know, I used to detest running. I only started doing it after Noah was born to lose weight. It wasn't until I entered a race that I began liking the sport. This Sunday I realized that it is the sense of community that running offers that I have fallen in love with. It is amazing to wake up and go join thousands of strangers in the pursuit of a common goal. It doesn't seem to matter who you are or where you come from - as long as you have pinned on your bib number and rubbed on your body glide you're in the club, no questions asked. People you would ordinarily never speak to suddenly become like brothers and sisters on your journey. People help each other, and cheer for each other, and celebrate together at the end. Because of the one commonality, all the other glaring differences cease to matter. It is what I imagine eternity will be like with other believers, and something I wish that I saw more of on a day to day basis here on earth.
Besides, if that doesn't convince you running is great, this might: I burned 1300 calories on Sunday morning and ate pizza, ice cream, doughnuts, and fries guilt free! How's that for a good reason to run!
PS - A big shout out to my friend Priscilla (the one who got me hooked on running last year). She was running the Knoxville Marathon (26.2 miles!) the same time that Wes and I were running our race, and she did an amazing job! I can't wait to get together and run a race Priscilla!
Here are the runners at the starting line. Because there were so many people, and we were near the back, it took us 18 minutes after the gun went off just to get to the starting line.
Here are the leaders of the marathon. They passed us - we were on mile 9, they were on mile 22- like we were standing still!
1 comment:
Good job Kelly & Wes! I am proud of you both! I will need some motivation once this kid is born...i hope i will start to like running too! Good job Shealys!
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