I have been overweight my whole life so I have tried every fad diet, exercise program, and crazy pill out there. I did anything except what I should do: eat right and exercise. And as I got older, I wanted to be one of those “runner people.” This want kicked into high gear when I moved to the beach. All along A1A on Saturday mornings you see runners. They make it look so effortless.
So I did what any good overweight person does before they start something new, I created a playlist. Yes, in no way did I do any actual running, but I did start a playlist called “I’m gonna run dammit” in spotify. And that playlist sat for a solid two years. I would see it when I opened the app and it would make me feel guilty for not actually running, but once I hit play on another playlist that guilt faded away.
During the two year playlist lull, I saw a movie. A movie that still inspires me to this day. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Walter being played by Ben Stiller, who also directed the movie. If you haven’t seen it, go see it. Walking out of the theater I told my friend that I was with that it made me want to get off my ass and do something, anything. I am a dreamer like Walter. I dream of all these big adventures that I take no action to make happen. But one day Walter does, and it is amazing. The song that inspires him through out the movie is David Bowie’s Space Oddity. I added it to my playlist and there it sat for another 6 months.
Another David Bowie inspiration moment came when I was rewatching for the 100th time, The Perks of Being a Wall Flower. That moment at the end when Patrick has found “the song” (which turns out to be Heroes by David Bowie) and Charlie has his moment in the tunnel. I wanted that moment. That moment when everything is good. It only lasts a second. But if you recognize it, like Charlie does, it is forever.
“This one moment when you know you’re not a sad story. You are alive. And you stand up and see the lights on the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you’re listening to that song, and that drive with the people who you love most in this world. And in this moment, I swear, we are infinite.”
At this point it is just a month out from my 35th birthday. I called it my birthday of officially being old. You can never say that you are in your early 30’s after that day. And it made me look back and realize I have wasted a lot of time. It was time for my Walter moment. I had heard talk of the Disney Marathon. I knew I could never do a full marathon, but that is where my search started. I found runDisney.com. That was it. I had to do one of these races. I researched and picked a race I thought I’d have enough time to train for. I’d have 10 months to train for the Wine and Dine half marathon. If the thrill of running the race wasn’t enough, this race ended at the Epcot food and wine festival.
My training started slowly. I had some medical issues pop up from going from total lack of exercise to running 3 days a week, but after a couple of months those were behind me. I kicked my butt into gear in July. July in South Florida is not the best time in the world for an overweight person who hates treadmills to start training for a half marathon, but I did it. It was hot, sweaty and there were a lot of very early mornings to beat the heat (problem with the morning is it is cool, but it is also the most humid part of the day). I had some IT bad issues pop up from doing too much too soon, but I did not let that stop me.
November rolls around and I am waiting for the officials to release us into our corrals. And that is when it all went wrong. This was a night race, in Florida, at Disney. So they kind of take lighting seriously. Instead of heading to our corrals, we headed indoors to wait out the storm (the storm that never really came.) By the time Disney felt it was safe to have us run, it was so late that they had to cut the course down to 6.8 miles. Slightly longer than a 10k was not what I wanted. I wanted to be a half marathoner. But you deal the cards your dealt, and I did the half of a half marathon. At the end, I realized there was no way that I could have done 13.1 miles. I think the big guy upstairs was looking out for me. He knew that if I had attempted this and failed, I never would have ran again. He knows what he is doing.
Luckily, I had already signed up for the Inaugural Star Wars: Dark Side Half Marathon in April. I will honestly say, I did not train as much as I should have for this race, but when April 17th rolled around I was as ready as I was going to be. I started in the last corral with the dreaded balloon ladies. Those balloon ladies passed me at the 15k mark and I thought all hope was lost. Once they pass you, as the official pass keepers, you can get picked up at any time. I kept going fully ready to admit defeat at the next sweep point. Then I saw it. The next sweep point was right in front of me. Less than 200 feet. And the pace cyclists were ready to move their bikes into the road to block us off and load us on to buses. I don’t know where that last burst of speed came from, but it did. Four people behind me made it as well, but we were safe. As long as we could keep moving, we would finish. And that I did. I kept moving forward (my favorite Walt Disney quote) and I finished that half marathon.
I crossed the line with David Bowie’s Heroes playing, and in that moment I was infinite. I was a half marathoner.
It was amazing and exhausting. I have already signed up for another race in November and hope to do the Glass Slipper Challenge in February. It was a long, drawn out journey. But I have done it. I am one of those people out running on A1A at an unnecessarily early hour on a Saturday. I spend way too much on running shoes and have my running board full of stuff on pintrest. I am a runner.
tales from the last corral 