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New York Marathon 2011
Oh no! Oh yes!
I have really done it. I have signed
my life away and promised to run the New York Marathon and raise a ton
of money at the same time!
Yikes! Did I say RUN and NEW YORK
and MONEY?
No big deal you might think but
let’s be very clear about one thing: I am NOT a marathon runner! So why
would any sane woman put herself into this position voluntarily? Well,
let me start at the beginning and on second thought; sane probably has
never really applied to me anyway.
I have been the proverbial couch
potato all my life and in my eyes sport was a four-letter word and an
activity never ever to be engaged in. Half a life-time later having
immigrated to New Zealand and training to be an Osteopath I realized
quickly that my unfit body would not stand the demands of a manual
therapy profession for very long. With full-time study, 2 young kids and
no money I started walking with the local Athletic Club on Sunday
mornings. Walking is not sport, we do it all the time or so I tried to
cheat myself.
After a couple of years I started
jogging from one lamp post to the next which was just about all I could
manage without a heart attack. For another couple of years that made up
my “non-sport’ routine. Then I fell pregnant with my third child in the
middle of my Master’s course. Yep a seriously dumb thing to do.
Now I was studying, looking after
two young kids, a house, jog/walk, breastfeeding a baby and everything
else that comes with it. You super-mum’s out there know exactly what I
am talking about aye? I had always been on the chubby side but when bubs
was about 5 month old, I felt my body was completely out of well –
anything really. To cut a long story short I joined weight watchers,
lost 10 kilos and started jogging more seriously although still resigned
to the fact that sport was never going to be something I would enjoy.
Then those mad runners at the
athletic club – you know those who go and run 20 kilometers for fun on a
Saturday – started to push me to set myself a goal in terms of running
and so the crazy idea about running the Auckland Half Marathon was born.
Me? NO WAY!
October 2009 came and I found myself
at the start of 21 kilometers over the Auckland
harbour bridge! All the while asking myself how on earth I had
come to this point. I don’t DO sport! But I managed to get through the
half marathon in a reasonable state and after that being very proud of
myself promptly stopped running for 2 months (hey I needed some recovery
time) and put on about 4 kilos!
This is where my good friend Janelle
came in. She has connections to CatWalk, a charity raising money for
research and rehabilitation of spinal injuries. They are putting a team
together for the New York Marathon to fundraise for their work. Do you
see where this is going?
Ultimate goals have a funny way of
unearthing even more ultimate goals once they are achieved. Having done
one half marathon the mental leap to the marathon was not a big one and
yes I am aware that that in reality the leap is HUGE! And yes I am
scared stiff of having to run 42 kilometers and scared even more of
having to raise a lot of Dollars. But isn’t there a saying that the only
limits are the ones we have in our heads – or something rather.
So please have a look at my blog
which is my training diary. Spread the news; follow me on this journey
and who knows what might happen….
Let’s fly (or in this case run)
Pia |
