Next Sunday, in just over a weeks time, Lesley will be realising a huge goal. Having never run before in her life she decided to run a half marathon. Now that might sound like only 13 miles. But it is 13.2 miles all at once, non-stop, for a little over 2 hours. Running.
The longest journey begins with a single step
The hardest mile you ever run is your first mile. Many cannot do that in one go. Then other miles can follow, one by one. The body complains at regular intervals as every muscle, bone and sinue is brought back into action. Injuries occur that stop the training. The strength and fitness drains away and it feels like starting over again. Back to that hardest first mile.
Like any goal that you want to achieve, it takes determination and sacrifice. By far the biggest sacrifice is your precious time. Time spent you will never see again. We don’t get it back. It’s always easier to carry on with our busy day to day lives and avoid the training. But gradually the time out becomes the achievement. It’s not the miles, its the “me time”. A clear head, splendid isolation from this world. Returning after a run often has put an annoyance into perspective or somehow has allowed your subconscious to provide the solution to that nagging problem. However you get your “me time”, it’s important for the health of every one of us.
A lifetime achievement
So how long will it take Lesley to run her first half marathon? As I said earlier, a little over 2 hours. But in reality it will have taken her an entire lifetime so far. It took her 50 years to run her first mile. In a little over 4.5 years since, she has run 1562 miles. Thats almost a mile a day, every day, on average. Sure she has complained about it once or twice, who wouldn’t, but overall she has loved it.
She will cross the finish line beneath Spaceship Earth in EPCOT. I will be the proudest husband on earth as she realises this huge personal goal and hopefully I will have kept up. I would like to be holding her hand when she finishes.
Never finished
Her next half marathon is already booked. It’s the Manchester half marathon next year. You see once you have achieved something big, it’s not the time to stop. It’s become a lifestyle choice and hopefully the health benefits will become apparent in the future.
Please wish her luck. She isn’t doing this for Charity, she is doing it for herself. There is nothing wrong with that, we all need to look after ourselves to ensure we can continue to help others.
If you want to show your support then do something for yourself for an hour or two next weekend and send her the photo. Get busy living!