About thirteen years ago I was scrolling through Facebook and saw a post a friend of mine had shared.
She had competed in a triathlon with Team in Training which is an organization that raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
I think I might have been pregnant at the time, and I’d give birth to three more kids in the five years following that.
But having a younger brother who died when I was sixteen after an 18-month battle with leukemia, I vowed to do a triathlon with Team In Training when I was done having kids.
And less than a year after Number 7 was born, that’s exactly what I did.
I did a sprint triathlon in June of 2012.
It was so much fun!
It was so much fun that I did another triathlon that summer in September 2012 with Team in Training.
This time I did an Olympic triathlon which is twice the distance of a sprint tri (1 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6 mile run).
And that was so much fun that I decided to go a little bit bigger and the next year I did the New York City Triathlon.
It was amazing.
This picture came up in my Facebook memories yesterday:
The NYC tri was seven years ago — July 14, 2013.
That awesome chick running on my right with the cool blue sneakers was one of my college roommates my freshman year. (I lived in a triple).
She lived in the city and waited for me to come out of the bike and spotted me and then she ran with me for a couple minutes as I headed into Central Park.
How cool is that?
The moment that picture was taken was indescribable.
There were people lining the streets and cheering and the air was electric.
The night before I had gone out to dinner with the other members of the Team in Training triathlon group as well as the coaches.
The told us they still had some spots open for the NYC Marathon in November of that year.
Three and a half months later.
As I was running down 72nd or 73rd street (or somewhere in the 70’s) when that picture was taken I thought to myself, “If the NYC tri is this awesome, the marathon must be fucking incredible.”
So the next day I contacted the coaches and I told them I was in.
I’d never run a marathon.
I hadn’t been training for a marathon.
I’d have to raise $4000 to do it.
And I did it.
That November I ran my first marathon.
If you’re gonna do one, you might as well go big or go home.
IT WAS AMAZING.
Since then, I’ve run 5 more marathons — The Hartford Marathon (twice), The Cape Cod Marathon, and Boston (twice — and for charity both times).
I was trying to run one marathon a year after that first one.
And I succeeded through 2018.
Last year I didn’t run any marathons.
But this year, I was set to go again.
I got a spot in the NYC Marathon again running and raising money for Race4Chase.
Back to New York City.
I was so excited.
But, as has been the case for so many other things, the marathon has been cancelled this year.
It’s okay.
I get to run it in 2021 with Race4Chase.
But I’ve been thinking.
I was supposed to run a marathon on November 1st.
And you know what?
I may not be in NYC this year.
But on Sunday, November 1, 2020, I’m still running 26.1 miles.
If my kids can power through distance learning, well, then I’m gonna suck it up and power through a virtual marathon, too.
If I can do that — if I can run 26.2 miles by myself with no other runners and no crowds and no people cheering, well, then I can pretty much do anything.
Wanna look cute while you work out?
Wanna look cute while you don’t work out?
JOIN MY BADASS ZYIA COMMUNITY.
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