OMG, I Signed Up for a Half Marathon!!

Ok, you guys talked me into it.  :-)

So this week I signed up for my very first half marathon.  I had been talking about signing up for some sort of race for years and never did it.  I, of course, always had some sort of excuse to not do it.  I didn't have time.  Raul works weekends.  I don't have the extra money.  I can't spend that much time away from the boys.  Etc., etc., etc....

Aidan was sick last week and I had to take him to a pediatrician I had never met before.  Aidan was okay and the next day I watched The Real Housewives of Orange County on my DVR.  I decided to look up where Vicki's insurance office was located, and it turned out that it was on the first floor of the building in Rancho Santa Margarita where I took Aidan to the doctor the day before!!  No-freaking-way!!!

So I checked out more of her two websites here and here.  She sells jeans, too?  Oh, sorry.  HA!  I just started reading all about her to find out exactly what keeps her busier than the other housewives, what makes her so successful.  I read about her company, the jeans, and I read her blog and interviews from her media section.  This quote really struck me:

I don't really enjoy TV; it's a waste of time. I would rather go to the gym or get out of the house and do something productive. I don't want to sit on the couch and watch TV.

And, ahem, I watch A LOT of TV.  What she said made me realize how much time I waste watching TV.  I did have time to go to the gym if I quit watching TV, if I spent less time on the computer.  ;-)  I did have time to train for a half marathon!!  Not a full marathon, but a half marathon, yes.  I immediately found a half marathon to sign up for.  I didn't want my DVR and my TV to be the reasons I never do the things I really want to do. 

Honestly, there is another reason I finally committed myself to doing it.  I recently found some old high school friends and it reminded me of other times in my life when I dedicated myself to doing things I wasn't sure I could accomplish just to prove to myself that I could. 

I once went on a canoe trip that involved carrying our canoes more than they were in the water on the first day.  Remember, I am 5'2" and I was only one of two people carrying our canoe with all our gear inside and an ice chest.  I even tripped in the water while carrying the canoe and cut my finger open on a tree that was under the water.  (The fallen trees were the reason we had to carry our canoes so far.)  During a break on a sand bar, I went off by myself and cried, thinking to myself that I would pay for a helicopter to come and pick me up if I had the money.  It wasn't until this break that my canoeing partner admitted that he had a first aid kit the entire time.  Jerk.  Thanks for adding to my frustration!  Then we got separated from the group looking for a guy who went ahead of the group by himself to scout out a campground.  Ugh.  We found him but it was about to RAIN and we had to find another sand bar to set up camp and get the steaks grilled before the rain started or we would not have a meal for the day.  So there I was that night eating extremely rare steak and drinking beer, because someone else had the ice chest with the water and soda, while the skies opened up on our tents.  My stomach hurt and I kept burping from the beer.  And my finger...  Why did I go on this trip?

Believe it or not, I woke up feeling refreshed the next day and I had gotten over my fear that my finger would rot and fall off.  We paddled to the half-way point where staff from the canoe company were meeting us to make sure everything was going well.  A good portion of our group decided to call it quits at the half-way point, but I decided to go on because I believed it couldn't get any worse.  Why stop when it just starts getting better, you know?

I was soooooo glad that I stayed.  The rest of the trip was a piece of cake.  No more trees in the water; no more carrying canoes.  The sun was glistening off the water.  We canoed and raced and goofed off and had an excellent second day!!  I was so proud of myself for sticking it out because it was so worth it!  Finishing that canoe trip was - seriously - a spiritual experience for me.  It changed me more than any sermon at church ever did.  I thought deeply about that experience for along time... after I reopened the cut on my finger to clean out the leftover pieces of slimy bark.

I believe that experience is what led me to have the strength to do many other things in my life.  Leaving Louisiana.  Briefly having my own apartment by myself!  Hiking to the Mt Charleston ridge line just outside of Vegas - twice.  Having a completely natural birth at home.  To some people, those things are nothing.  To other people, I am insane and should probably seek some professional help.  To yet others, I am courageous.  In reality, I have pushed myself farther than I ever thought I could.  And I want to continue pushing myself because I feel like that is a part of who I am.

When I was in high school and the first years of college, I never imagined I would ever move away from Louisiana.  EVER.  Other people did that, not me.  I never imagined I would learn to sail a boat.  I never imagined I would live in Las Vegas or Austin or Southern California!  I never imagined I would have a child with Asperger's Syndrome and be able to handle it.  I never imagined I would have that natural birth at home.  And I certainly never imagined I would be running a half marathon!

The truth is that I have to do the half marathon.  It's something extremely challenging, and one of my favorite quotes by Eleanore Roosevelt is what I try to live by... "You must do the things you think you cannot do."

Making my body hurt for a few hours is much easier than enduring two and a half years of teachers and other school staff who don't seem to have much positive to say about my wonderful son.  It won't hurt as much as giving birth without drugs.  It won't be as difficult as moving away from everyone I know and love.  Clearly, I have to do this.  I just have to.