Pounding the Pavement

I will not be running the Disney Marathon this year. This really hit home today as I was trotting my way through the last mile of the Race for the Taste 10K

This January I will not be rising at the crack of dawn to stand huddled in the cold… (yes, Florida does get cold)... waiting breathlessly for the start of the race and wondering who, within the echelon of Disney, decided that the Port-a-Lets should be so very far from Corral F, because I have to pee again!

This January I will not be coming up with new and creative uses for “the F-word” and joyously throwing myself upon the volunteers around Mile 19 who have the lucky job of handing out little Dixie cups of beer.

This January I will not experience the miracles of Powerade, Body Glide, Bio Freeze, Tylenol 8-hour, Green Apple Power Gel and immersing my entire body, post race, into an ice cold swimming pool in hopes of fending off muscle soreness. I also will not, despite my best efforts, lose six of my ten toenails making pedicures and cute sandals a most entertaining experience for the next seven months.

No, this January I will not find myself running towards Spaceship Earth, hearing the crowd cheer and the music play and my heart pounding in my ears, realizing this is it... I have done it... I am finishing another 26.2 miles.

This January I will not unsuccessfully fight off tears as I cross the finish line. I will not offer a sweaty, heartfelt hug to the volunteer who places a medal over my head. I will not, as I stumble towards myriad friends and family, feel the most powerful exhilaration I have ever felt in my life or the realization that I am so lucky to have found this hobby and to be able to participate in this tremendously moving and heady experience.

Six years ago if you had asked me, "Hey Meag! Wanna run a marathon?" I would have had to spend a few minutes laughing hysterically. Once I regained the ability to breathe, I would have then cheerfully whacked you on the arm - you're so funny! - asking, “Do you smoke crack?” But after watching a few friends complete the Disney marathon in 2002, I decided that I wanted to do one too. I didn't really think about what goes into marathon running; it just sounded pretty cool. So I spent many months gaily informing people I was going to do the marathon. Yep! A marathon! I really was!

I didn't get nervous until the night before the marathon when it occurred to me that actually training might... just might... have been a good idea. Despite this shocking display of insensibility, in January 2003, after 7 hours of walking, trudging, limping... and wondering why in the hell I was doing this… I finished my first marathon. As hard as it was, it got me thinking of what I might be able to do if I put forth some effort into a training program. I had walked a marathon… could I now run one? There had been points where I genuinely contemplated sitting down on the side of the road and begging the Sag Wagon folks to please, for the love of God, pick me up and take me home already. Did I truly want to do this again?

As it turns out, I did.

Four years later, I have run (yes, run!) 5 marathons, 4 half-marathons, and over 25 smaller races. Hard to believe it, but the girl who came in last at every single freakin’ Field Day in elementary school, actually pays money to get up early, pin a race number to her shirt and put one foot in front of the other for up to 6 hours at a time. Sure, as a middle-of-the-packer, I will never qualify for Boston, but I love every second of it. (Well, almost every second of it. The toenail thing sort of sucks.)

But this January, I will not be running the Disney marathon.

Instead, I will be in Bulgaria. I bought my plane ticket today and am happy to report I will be departing from DC to Sofia on December 21. I’m incredibly excited and feel this will undoubtedly be one of the biggest and best adventures of my life. This January, I will be pounding a different sort of pavement as I job hunt in Bulgaria and attempt to create a new life for myself halfway around the world.

With my 2007 Disney marathon plans thus diverted, I now find myself contemplating running the first marathon – the original marathon next year. Anyone else up for Athens, 2007?