No Guts, No Glory

As I prepare myself for my 10th marathon, I sit back and think about the journey I took getting to this point. Here I was, fat and out of shape after our SORT team was disbanded at El Reno. Most of the guys on the team just laid down. None of us were really working out, or even the slightest bit motivated to do anything. Then, several of us decided enough was enough. My eye opener was when I realized, while lying on the bed, my stomach would lay next to me. Quite embarassing. We had a group of about five that started hitting the weights and running. One mile was good, two miles was a stretch. But, we kept pushing each other. Two miles would turn into three miles, and so on. The most we would run was eight miles.

As we maintained these types of workouts, the weight was starting to melt away. One problem though, I wasn't eating right. Matt and I went out for a run. When we got back to the fitness center, everything started going dark on me. Deb was on the treadmill and could tell something was wrong. I pretty much passed out when I laid down on the sit-up bench. Next thing I knew, Deb and Matt were standing over me, with Deb putting a cold wash cloth on my head. Lesson learned. To burn calories, you have to have nurishment in your system or your body will shut down on you.

We continued on with our runs. Entering various races, from 5Ks to 10Ks. Matt approached me and said we should run the half marathon for the Oklahoma City Memorial race. Being new to running, at that point, I asked him what the distance was on that. When he told me it was 13.1 miles, my response was, "You must be out of your f'ing mind if you think I'm running 13.1 miles!" Needless to say, that is not the issue anymore. I have come to grasp distance running as my therapy for the things that stress us out in life. Some races don't go as planned, just as some training runs. However, runningn has opened my eyes to new things, to include a healthier lifestyle. It has also opened my eyes to ways that I can help others. I continue to run for charity. Currently working on raising money for the Dana-Farber Foundation, which is for cancer prevention.

I guess what I'm trying to say, as some of you already know, it takes guts to take that first step. It takes dedication to continue on with the quest.