March 26, 2007...10:49 am
From the blisters of my feet
I have a new found respect for marathon runners.
At this weekend’s Relay for Life event, I in essence did a half marathon walking somewhere between 13 to 16 miles, closer to the 15 or 16 side. We lost count of the number of laps, and just went with time, divided by 5 minutes per lap, minus heat exhaustion. I’m still sore today from the event. Perhaps I didn’t get enough to drink the week prior to the event (lesson No. 1 Diet Coke is not a good substitute for water). My feet have blisters that married other blisters, but it was all for good.
I prefer to think about it like this - the small amount of pain that I am going through is nothing like the pain millions of people go through daily who suffer from some form of cancer. It is for them why we walked, and walked, and walked some more. It was fun. It was entertaining, especially when the Football Throwing Couple decided to go for a clip on me going down the backstretch around lap 45.
Let me explain, the Football Throwing Couple was a fun loving duo. To keep alert and awake while walking around 3 a.m., they decided to toss a football back and forth. Good idea, actually. Well on one pass the guy was going for a long pass and I was the unsuspecting defender. He goes up and runs into me, clipping me on the left calf that was already sore. I didn’t fall (that I recall). He did. I didn’t move thinking it was one of our youth coming up to try to tackle me.
I should have gotten out of the way, but it was all for fun. We were both OK and we continued along our way.
I’m still convinced that many teams brought in ringers on Saturday. Ringers are what I called the people that you could tell had a good night sleep and had not been out there all day. They were running. They were skippy. They were fresh and they didn’t stink. Of course, we had our own ringer.
In all, the team raised about $530, a little below our goal, but still not too shabby either. It was a great event, an emotional event, but one I want to do against next year.
Probably with some extra sleep and water.
2 Comments
March 27, 2007 at 8:47 pm
“Diet Coke is not a good substitute for water”
HA! No, it really isn’t.
Congrats on doing a half marathon of walking! That takes some good stamina. I did my first marathon last year in Cleveland which is one of the few marathons that has a full length walking division and I was impressed that a few people actually beat my running time with their walking!
Glad to see you raised some good money … if you train for next year just think … you can be someone else’s ringer!
March 28, 2007 at 6:28 am
I don’t think anyone will ever confuse me for a ringer. But, I will say the growth that I’ve made in the past year with my diet, weight loss, and just better exercise habit. Had I did Relay for Life last year, at this time, it would’ve been interesting. Even though I had been officiating football and wrestling, I was still a blob of my current self. I, at best, would’ve been able to do fewer miles and would’ve likely stayed in the field house. That would’ve been embarrassing for me and also, I think, would’ve sent a wrong message to our youth.
I praise God for the event and for my improved health. May I continue to get healthier and next year be able to beat Dan in miles walked.
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