Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Maybe I'm Only Half Crazy...

I’ve been a bit hesitant to make a public announcement regarding what I’m about to publically announce.  It’s not life-shattering nor particularly embarrassing (a pleasant change), but it’s something I find personally scary and admitting it in a public forum means I’ve committed myself to this particular activity.

I signed up for my first half-marathon.

This is something I’d been thinking about doing for awhile, especially since I’ve lapsed a bit on training since the Peachtree ended.  I’ve been sticking to my commitment of at least one 5K per month to celebrate my 30th birthday and that’s been fun (in October, I did two in the same weekend—Monday was less fun).  I’ll keep doing them b/c it’s a fun way to spend time with my friends and then eat an absurd amount of Waffle House afterward.

But I missed having a running group and I need the accountability that a running group provides.  And so…  I signed up through Team in Training and committed to the Publix Half Marathon on March 22, 2015.  For obvious reasons, blood cancer research is important to me, not only because it saved my life, but it impacts people I care about.

And like I told my TnT recruiter, I’m tired of being a mascot in my own cancer story.

For all that people gave me credit for how gracefully I handled having cancer, I didn’t do much.  I got well (and, more importantly, wanted to get well) because I was surrounded by friends and family who never let my spirits fall so low, I thought giving up was the better option.  I had doctors, harangued by my father (often and without guilt), who worked around the clock to make sure my pain was as minimal as it could be under the circumstances.

My beloved bestie already has done her part to raise money on my behalf during her experience with Team in Training, and now it’s my turn to pay it forward and to do one of things I wanted to do before I got sick.  I want to be my own hero and finish something I’m not entirely certain I’m capable of.  Paralyzed left diaphragm and bad arches notwithstanding, I’m literally not sure I can last 13.1 miles.I’m also not sure I’ll last through early morning, cold weather training, but I’ve got cute new clothes, so it’s a start.


I’d also apologize in advance for the next five months of fundraising requests, but I wouldn’t actually mean it, so I’ll just promise not to post links to my TnT page too often.