I was so hyped up after I finished my first blog post last night that I didn't get to bed until after midnight. When I did finally get to sleep, I woke up a few hours later to find that we'd already gotten our first donation!! Point being, the amount of energy and love surrounding this effort is simply outstanding (please excuse the excessive use of exclamation points and smiley faces you're sure to encounter in this blog) and I cannot wait to see what happens between now and March 16th!
So in order to fully appreciate my choice to run a marathon in order to raise money to support Lizbeth, I'll give you a little background on my running history. When I was in elementary school, I was a pretty chubby kid (shocker, right? :) ). I can distinctly remember my gym teacher, Mr. Chichester (yes NP friends, Mr. C was my K-5 gym teacher and he was just as awesome then as he is now!!), making us run the mile for the Presidential Physical Fitness Test. Anyone else have hellish flashbacks of that time of your life??
I struggled to finish, and definitely was one of the last kids to do so. I pretty much hated running. Things didn't get much better in middle school (worse, if we're referring to hairstyle mistakes that I'll never live down). I was SO pumped to have foot surgery in 8th grade, because guess what gym unit I'd be missing? Yup, track and field. Score. I literally had anxiety attacks about running the hurdles in front of boys, so this was extremely convenient timing.
The closest I got to running in high school was sprinting (if you could call it that) from base to base when I played softball and chasing the tennis ball that I'd just missed. Again. It wasn't until the END of college when I finally decided I could probably try training for a 5k. And this was only because my older sister Kristen had signed up for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and I really admired her- and still do. I also suckered several of my friends to run with me. It's kind of my M.O. so if I start asking you if you've ever considered running a marathon, watch out!
Once I had my first very slow 5k behind me, I got the fevah, the running fevaaaah :). I started signing up for smaller races like the Twin Bridges race in Atlantic Beach with my good friend Katie, and then moved up to the Broad Street 10 miler in my beloved *cough* Philadelphia.
Hold on a sec. Let's just keep in mind that when I say "race" I mean "Emily tied her shoes, proceeded to put one foot in front of the other, and plodded her way to the finish, all while attempting to breath/not pass out/not choke on water/not hold up traffic/not embarrass herself."
You heard it here first:
I AM A SLOOOOOW RUNNER!
And that's ok. There is a quote I love that says
"Dead last finish, beats did not finish, which greatly trumps did not start. Have the courage to start."
That's pretty much my motto. I do try to get faster, but for the most part I'm fine with just finishing. And I have finished quite a few races including two 3 half-marathons, 2 10-milers, several 10k's and a handful of 5k's. All very, very slowly. And that is how I like it, and that is how I intend to run this marathon**. So if you're a running purist who says that us pokey ploddy runners take away from the real glory of the marathon, I am here to tell you that that's not the point. Not even close. I will run every inch of that 26.2 mile race to bring attention to the battle against ovarian cancer that so many amazing women are fighting every single day. One in particular will be in my heart every step of the race. Sounds like a pretty glorious reason to run slowly, right?
What shouldn't be slow is the race to find a cure for ovarian cancer. YOU can help speed up that race by donating to the OCRF today! Even $10 is a HUGE help and will get us closer to finding a cure for this disease. Please take a minute to visit my fundraising page http://tinyurl.com/ccdzmf9 and consider making a donation to show your support and love to Lizbeth. She deserves all that we can give her.
Peace and love,
Emily
**There IS a 5.5 hour course limit on this race, so I'm gonna try not to be TOO slow...I hear they have something called a sag wagon to scoop you off the course...eek!
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