May 10
7
I am not invisible or irrelavant!
Here is Jane’s last update as she prepares to run her first marathon Saturday, at the beautiful age of 61. She has pushed through and accomplished her goal, and has been an inspiration to so many. You go, girl!
I haven’t been updating my blog as much as I wanted to this week because there has not been a lot to say. I only had 2 miles to run yesterday so it was pretty anticlimactic and I thought who wants to hear that I ran 2 miles yesterday, 20 miles sounds so much sexier. LOL But I do want to jot down some thoughts about the journey over the last 18 weeks.
I know exactly why I did this. Very clearly it hit me when I was watching the Biggest Loser last December. There were four people left and they were required to run a marathon as their final challenge and I remember thinking, “If they can run 26.2 miles so can I.” It never crossed my mind that they were all younger than me, that didn’t matter, I was fitter, or so I thought. So it’s very clear what got me started but what kept me going is not quite so clear.
What was it that got me up each Saturday to run those long long miles. What got me out each Tuesday to run 3, 4, 5 miles or each Wednesday to run 8, 9, 10 miles or each Thursday to run 6, 7, 8 miles. That I’m not so sure of.
I do know one thing was all of you, all the people who were reading my blog and encouraging me to keep going. I may not have responded to each and every one of you but I read each and every word and I can’t tell you how good those words felt.
I also know I have a problem with how “older” people are perceived. When I turned 40 I started to become invisible and by 50 I was totally invisible (I always thought I should go in the bank robbing business because I was invisible) but when I started to become irrelevant I got mad. How dare you treat me as if I’m irrelevant, you little whipper snapper. I can take invisible but I can’t, no I won’t take, irrelevant. Isn’t running your first marathon at 61 a great way to say, “Heh I’m not irrelevant.”
It’s hard to believe I have less than 48 hours to the start of my run. I’m as prepared as I ever will be and still amazed that I not only made this far but that my running has gone so well, that my times are really not bad (for someone my age!! LOL).
I am eating lots of and lots of carbs today but trying to keep the calories in line with what Hal says and tomorrow more of the same, however, I need to drink more tomorrow. Where is that bottle of bourbon anyway?
I will post just before I walk out the door on Saturday. Wish me luck and see you all Saturday.
Read Jane’s blog about her journey here
Read Jane’s earlier post.
