Five Simple Words Started it All

"Sure!  I'll do a marathon."

Yep.  Five words spoken over a bottle of wine on Whidbey Island in April, and now I'm signed up for my first ever marathon, which I will be running next June, and which is why this blog came to be.

But those aren't the five words that got me off the couch.  Those were five very different words, spoken to my friend Colleen in 2002 when she suggested that I do the Danskin Triathlon wtih her. 

"Sorry, I don't do triathlons."

Five words, said with such confidence and disdain, knowing with complete certainty that I wasn't an athlete, and wondering why she'd even suggest that to me.  I wasn't an athlete!  Coudn't she see that?  The height of my athletic achievement to that point had been finishing an occasional step class at the gym.  But those words also felt so self-defeating.  They really bothered me, and they stuck with me.

Six months later, I was out and ran into a woman who was riding her bike in the cold rain.  She was older than me and weighed more than me, and when I asked her why she was crazy enough to ride her bike in the rain, she told me she was training for the Danskin Triathlon.  In that moment, that conversation with Colleen came back to me, and I asked myself, "Why don't I do triathlons?"  The minute I got home, I signed up for the 2003 Seattle Danskin Triathlon.

Since that time, I have completed 10 sprint triathlons, nine 10K runs, 1 half marathon and countless 5K fun runs, charity runs, beer runs and anything I can find.  I've gotten my friends to join me, met new friends through this and even started a Facebook Group called Seattle Monthly Runners.

Which brings us to the purpose of this blog.  I WAS a couch potato, but at one important moment in my life, I decided to get off the couch and try things I never thought I could do, and it changed me.  It has been challenging and frightening and empowering and something I will probably do until my body won't allow me to anymore.

Which is why, at age 43, I've decided to take a big step up and tackle the big white whale.  A marathon.  A friggin' marathon.  26.2 miles.  Twice as long as any run I've ever done, and ten times as daunting.  I'm a slow runner, so in addition to building my endurance, I'm also hoping to improve my speed.  Did I mention it was daunting?

So I am starting this blog, and I'll be sharing my adventure here.  The training, the struggles, the victories, the setbacks, and ultimately, the race.  I'm hoping that readers will share experiences, insights, tips and encouragement, and if I can inspire even one person to try a 5K when they thought they never could do something like that, then this whole endeavor will have been a success.

I learned when I signed up for the first triathlon that if I told everyone I knew that I was going to do it, I couldn't back out.  I was committed.  Well, a bigger goal needs a bigger audience.  Not only am I telling all my friends, but my Facebook community, the Twitterverse and ultimately, the world wide web.  If you're interested in joining me on this journey, I hope you will subscribe and comment and share your stories with me as well.  Wish me luck!

Next up: Training: Week One - Tackling the Treadmill (which I hate)