So, I guess I'm running a marathon.

I'm running a marathon because Eve ate an apple. It sounds absurd, but the farther I trace back my story, the more I realize it comes back to that fact. Whether Eve existed and she ate a literal apple or not, the point is that the human race made a big mistake and the world is not as it should be. Cancer is a part of that. My Uncle Dave got cancer and fought it for years. In support of him, his three daughters started participating in a two day, 120 mile, bike ride to raise money for cancer research. When my Uncle Dave died last spring, I decided I would join them. I had the same bike I'd had since junior high, and with a fervor I didn't know was in me, I trained obsessively the entire summer. My best friends pitched in and bought me a beautiful road bike and it was my ticket to freedom: I was literally unstoppable. I had no idea what I was capable of.
I brought my bike to school with me to Oregon, but bless Newbergs heart, all it does here is rain. I slid out once trying to ride in the rain and learned my lesson: no more biking in the Oregon winter. So I stopped exercising completely and the repercussions of this hit me like a ton of bricks, both physically and emotionally. With advice from a counselor and the forcefulness of close friends ringing in my ears, I started to run. An important side not here: I ran cross country in junior high, worked my butt of, consistenly came in barely infront of the last place person, accidently ran five miles maybe my freshman year of high school, and have not run any significant distance since then for the last five years: I loath running to the core of my being.
But me being me, I ran two miles cold turkey making sure I wasn't done until I was bright red and sweating and had to scoot down the stares the next day. But if you know me you know I live off the challenge, so I kept running and when someone suggested I could do three, I did three because I don't know how to back down. I called my older sister, and what do you know, she'd been doing a lot of running too. She told me she thinks this is going to be her thing, and that she's going to run a marathon on Decembe 11 in Honolulu: practically where we grew up, and why don't I join her? After biking this summer, I could certainly take up running. I live off the challenge: so I guess I'm running a marathon.

Because the world is imperfect and fallen, because my Uncle fought so bravely, because I discovered my potential, because I can, I am running a marathon. We won't talk about the fact that I found a 10 mile run mapped in my area and nearly had a panic attack at the thought or that I've never run more than five miles. I love unsermountable challenges. I was made for physical endurance, not intellectual. I am so okay with that.

4/8/11