The Passionate Eclectic

Last year I went and did something I never thought I could.

I ran my first 1/2 marathon!

I, the girl with slightly abnormal q angles, feet that have a mind of their own, terrible posture and an athletic bone the size of a pea, trained for two months to run a ridiculous 21 km in 2:10. It was one of the top 10 moments in my life, falling somewhere between giving birth and knowing I was present once at a Shawn Cassidy concert…asleep…but present.

Here I am with my Girls: Jenn, Christy, myself and Nancy, after we ran our race in Kelowna.

We all came out of that experience on one long drawn out emotional high. The whole thing was so much fun we all vowed to do it again. Our next running race date was set for today.

But in my bodily world of abnormal q angles, mindless feet, poor posture and zero athleticism I sustained a nagging foot and ankle injury that has yet to heal itself. So two months ago, I sadly backed out and watched my girls run on ahead. I hadn’t fully started my training so the decision was only a little disappointing. My lovely friend Nancy had a different story.

Nancy is the fastest runner of the four of us and has legs that pretty much reach the sky. Her gracious form, which I would always admire from wayyyyyyy behind, left us all envious. However, despite her perfect gazelle like stride, Nancy also succumbed to an even worse injury forcing her to stop training at the 20km mark. It was the bummer of all bummers.

So we did the next logical thing. We limped and gimped our way to the 15 km mark with crazy signs for Jenn and Christy preparing to scream “move it!” and “hurry up we have donuts”!

The kids helped me make my sign. My markers ran out half way through so we had to supplement with paint…which looked really odd…but my son personalized it with names and that made the whole marker thing not a big deal. When we ran our race in Kelowna a year ago there were loads of people lining the street with signs galore saying things like: “If it were easy I’d be doing it!”  ”Your doing great!” and my all time favourite, “I don’t know you but I’m proud of you”. There is nothing like  having a stranger holding a sign with a big smile encouraging you even though they don’t know you. It was all very moving. Today we were those strangers….runners gave us everything from thumbs up, to smiles, to laughs, to cheers, right down to “thank-you for your sign I needed that”.  No one seemed to notice or point out the marker/paint fiasco so I guess it all worked out.

We also wanted to be a bit cheeky so we bought this big box of donuts and shoved a few in our mouths while Jenn and Christy ran by. It was all very awkward to eat a donut, hold a sign, take a picture, and cheer…in the end Nancy and I were really the only ones laughing. And maybe the weird guy running in cargo pants who didn’t even register. Everyone else was just confused.

Our foursome picture this year is a little different than what we originally anticipated…that and there is something weird going on with my eyes…but it was another moment well spent together. Nancy and I were proud of our girls…so proud we hugged them even though they were sweaty!

These two worked hard, ran a good race, looked pretty darn good and reached their goals. They are both close to my heart and it overjoyed me to see them accomplish such a difficult feat. Way to go Jenn and Christy!

There will be other races…there always is….so we’ve set our next date…..

….somebody better be there with donuts.