Today I Placed

Thirty years ago I was a pretty good runner. I wasn’t the fastest, but I was blessed with endurance and the will to keep pushing when others would quit.

The first marathon I ever ran I placed 8th in my age group and the next year placed 5th and then as high as 2nd. At that time in my life, running was fun. I would grab my Walkman and one of my running mixtapes and literally run for hours. We didn’t have GPS, so whenever I finished, I would grab the keys to my mom’s station wagon, reset the odometer and retrace my route to see how far I ran.

In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever won an official race, but I always finished near the top of my age group. At least I did until I turned 20.

Once I turned 20, I entered a new age bracket. Ages 20-24, not typically the age group of the overall marathon winners, but much more competitive than the 19 and under age group that I previously was in.

All of the sudden races were no longer fun. I was running against much stronger and more mature runners than ever before. I became caught up in the fact that I had zero chance of placing in my new age group.

Going from being one of the best in my age group to not even being relevant took a toll on me. Ultimately, I became discouraged, and I eventually quit running.

I let work consume most of my life and really let myself go physically. In February 2017, I found myself over 70 lbs., above my ideal weight.

I went on the Keto diet and lost 61 lbs., over the course of about six months, but I wasn’t exercising, but my daughter challenged me to run a half-marathon with her, so I began running once again. That run eventually evolved into a full-marathon several months later.

It had been 19 years since the last time I ran a marathon, and I finally accepted the fact that I didn’t need to place to have a good race. After where I had been physically less than six-months earlier my goal was just to cross the finish line.

My real goal was having my daughter finish and be able to list that as one of her most significant accomplishments for the rest of her life. We both finished although she beat me by a few minutes. My satisfaction came from just finishing, not in where I placed or my finishing time.

I ran another one five weeks later and improved my time. Running was becoming fun again, well maybe not fun, but more fun when I was done. I didn’t know what the future held next, but I was getting inspired.

A friend of mine invited me to a running group that she had been going to and introduced me to one of the coaches, Leanne Rosser. One of the first questions Leanne asked was what was my next goal. That question hit me right between the eyes, I was speechless. As a coach myself that helps people set and attain goals, I realized that I didn’t have one. She asked me if I had ever considered qualifying for Boston and I told her I hadn’t.

The Boston Marathon is the like the holy grail for marathon runners, and since I just recently started running again, it was probably the furthest thing from my mind. But she planted a seed, and it took off quickly. I got online and researched it, and within a few days, I had my goal: qualify for Boston.

Once I made the decision to make qualifying for Boston my goal, I decided to join the running club and hire Leanne as my running coach.

She currently has me on a marathon training plan that is way more structured and more mileage than I’ve ever run before to train for a marathon near Seattle in September. I’ve never run more than about five miles in the heat of the Texas summer, so I had no idea on what I was getting myself into, but today was a good day.

Today, July 4, 2018, I ran a 5K with several other members of our running group. My coach specifically told me not to exceed a 7:45 pace especially at the start and I followed her instructions. I finished the race a tad over 24 minutes and was shocked to learn that I placed second in my age group.

When I quit running when I turned 20, I walked away never expecting to place in a race ever again. I almost never stick around to hear the final race results, unless I’m waiting to see if one of my kids placed.

When I picked up my award, I must have looked emotional because my coach asked me if I was going to cry, but it did bring back all sorts of emotions and took me places in my mind that I haven’t revisited in many years.

There are two lessons 1) hard work pays off (I’ve never worked as hard as I have the last 3 months) running, eating right, working my core, lifting weights, training, etc. 2) my decision to walk away from running because I wasn’t placing was immature and stupid.

I’m grateful to have another opportunity and wise enough to know that the next time I walk away from running it will not be because I didn’t place.