As I was trotting away this morning on the treadmill I had a bit of what you might call a revelation. Normally I tend to think of a revelation as a positive thought, but not so today. What was this revelation? Well, it was something like this… “What in the world am I doing???” I mean seriously. When you get right down to it, what is the point of this endless running? I was watching the people all around me, lost in their own i-Pod worlds, eyes glazed over, kind of staring off into space or half way trying to follow the ticker on CNN or Fox News, and I had this passing thought that this is all a bit silly when you get right down to it. And as my minutes ticked by I thought some more and was attempting to justify to myself why a person might choose to get on the treadmill day after day. Now it is quite obvious that no one is forced to participate in these sorts of activities (the mindless running) so what is the motivation? Well, I don’t know about the other people, but these are the reasons that I came up with to justify my mindless running.
To begin with, I am the mother of three young children, the youngest of whom is seventeen months old. Some people I know have a baby and somehow, 2 weeks later, they are buttoning up their pre-pregnancy pants and saying how hard that was to gain all that weight. I am not one of those people. I have to put real effort into fitting back into those pants. Running is the quickest way I have found to lose weight effectively enough to once again wear said pants. That said, if nothing else, this training will guarantee that I will lose weight. Maybe enough that I will see the numbers on the scale drop to levels I haven’t seen since getting pregnant with baby #1 more than seven years ago. A person can be hopeful, right?
The other thought that I had was that this will score me another trip to Walt Disney World. Let’s face it, if you are reading this you are probably a pretty big fan of the number one mouse and aren’t we all trying to figure out a way to make another pilgrimage to our favorite Mouse House? The super cool bonus of all this running is the image that I carry every time I run… running through Cinderella’s castle! That is what I am running for, to see the castle in the distance and to run through it with all the characters standing around cheering. I get almost giddy with the thought of it. Too bad it is the 5.5 mile mark of the race. What else am I going to think about once I pass that point? Probably the Princess medal, that is a pretty cool thought too.
The last justification that I came up with this morning was that I want to be able to tell people that I ran a ½ marathon. Pure and simple bragging rights that I ran it and no one can take that away from me. When people hear that I am running the Princess ½ marathon at Disney World they all smile and say that they have never heard of it, but if anyone was going to do it, that it would be me.
So with all that said, I will continue on. The miles are only going to get longer from here on out, but I am up for it. I won’t let myself down!
Smiles-
Bridget (who is learning to be a runner)
good for U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!