How Training For A Marathon Changed My Outlook On My Life

0 to 26.2 miles in 6 months, game(LIFE)changingLet me be crystal clear on something before I take you down the path of my running journey. How did I start running and complete a marathon, THE marathon, The granddaddy of all marathons... The New York City Marathon in just 6 months.I never ran a full, straight mile and never had the desire. I dreaded running like all the other girls in gym class. I even elected to take Weightlighting during my last two years of high school to get out of the traditional exercise regimes of PE.I don't know EXACTLY what it was that one June day while driving home in my beach town. Along the boardwalk were runners, walkers, and bikers like every other day. I thought to myself, I want to try that... that running thing. I want to try that, and I want to enjoy it.Running for me up to that point was picking a distance and moving my legs and arms quickly, trying to control my breathing, and most of all, not dying until I was finished. I ALWAYS stopped before reaching the destination.Before reaching home, I had an idea, a crazy idea. I wasn't JUST going to learn to run with a smile on my face. I was going to run a race. Not just a 3K, 5K, or even half marathon... I wanted to go FULL on. I was going to run a marathon.Being from New York, I knew how sacred the NYC Marathon was. The city shuts down for their runners. The entire city shuts down!It was decided. In a 15-minute car ride home from work one sunny afternoon, I was going to go from 0 miles to 26.2 miles, RUNNING.Slamming through the door, I needed to know first when the marathon was! Turns out it is the First Sunday in November. It was currently late June. I got onto Google and typed away how long it takes to train. 4 to 6 months, depending on experience running, was the answer I received each time I asked. I was at a pivot point of whether to register this year and start now or take it slow and easy, giving myself well over a year to train... I've always thought, "No time like the present."... LET'S DO THIS!Research! It all started with a ton of research.Registration for the New York City Marathon Lottery was over. All the runner spots had been filled. Did this mean that I could not run?? I explored other avenues and found that I could still get in if I ran for a charity! Marvelous! The catcher: I needed to raise $2620 plus pay my $300 entry fee. Even if I were $1 short of my goal, I would not be running.Like most people, I dislike asking for money! I signed up anyway. I now was a Team For Kids member/runner.I counted up the weeks until the marathon and did the math. Training consists of getting miles in every week and adding to it, plus doing one long run once a week ( adding miles to this long run as well). I was nervous. Could I do the miles each week? What if I failed halfway through? What if I got injured?What if I didn't want to do it any longer?I started that very evening on my first run. I wore the things I had in my dresser ( not knowing it was all wrong). I challenged myself not to run a mile but to listen to music. I would listen to one Madonna song and stop running; I would then walk one song and run another.. repeating this until I hit a mile. I did it! Let me tell you... I felt on top of the world.The following day, I drove up to the local running store with a couple of blisters on my feet. I walked and mumbled that I needed help. They asked if I was training for something, and I held my head high and said, "YES! The New York City Marathon!". I always remember the smile on the salesperson's face as she congratulated me. I felt supported. Getting educated on everything I needed to wear and why, I felt excited to go for my next run.That evening, wearing my new running gear feeling so much more comfortable with a spring in my step, I ran my first mile. I will ALWAYS remember that first mile running without stopping... the feeling of accomplishment.That night, I went home and announced to my family, my husband (no longer my husband ), and my son that I was training for The NYC Marathon. My husband just looked at me and said, "What do you me?? You don't run!"... My dear son, who was seven then, just struggled with his little shoulders and said, "Of course you will; if that's what you want to do... you will do it."Running in the early morning was best for me. I had what seemed like the whole world to myself. Still primarily dark, the sun would rise, and birds would sing to me.Reading books and internet blogs about training taught me that 3 to 4 days running should be enough but I ran EVERY single day. I didn't want to remember what it felt like not to run; I didn't want to feel myself get "lazy". Or perhaps I became obsessed.I stuck to my running routine and then some. I ran every single mile. I put together numerous playlists and audiobooks to keep my mind off of the actual thing I was doing. It became a mental exercise for me. I would replay scenarios in my head of things, places, and people of past days that bothered me; I would pray about them, mediate about them, and then visualize leaving them right there on the pavement as I ran on.Yes, some days, even some weeks, were tough, and I can't explain why. I don't think any runner can. But I know that some days and weeks are fantastic and they are coming; I need to keep on.The week of The Marathon, as I was getting ready to pack, my sweet son asked if he could come with me. He could be there to cheer me on and be at the finish line. He wanted to see his mom finish what she set out to do. This! This was one of those moments that was so tender... He asked to be there, and then when he was... To say I sobbed like a baby when I saw him at the finish line is an understatement. It is a moment I will replay in my brain over and over until I die.The morning of the marathon was eery. Times Square was blocked off and closed down just for the marathon buses. For the runners to get on the buses and get to our destination... Staten Island. It felt like the End of The World. Darkness, wee hours of the morning, nervous bodies milling around, too jittery to speak, quickly loading on large buses to take us to our start lines.Over 40 thousand people. That was my tribe that day. We all were united together. To do one thing to simply "run". We encouraged one another, we laughed with one another, and we certainly cried with one another. We applied bandages to one another, and this was just the start.The whole thing only lasts about 4 1/2 hours. It was much like child labor. I have had babies, so I know. During the race, I forever was chanting, "Why am I doing this... this is dumb... why am I doing this..." But the moment I stepped over the finish line... I instantly knew why.Let me tell you how simply "running" is so much more than that, at least to me. It challenges not just my physical body but my mind! As Henry Ford's quote became my mantra, "Whether you can or can't, you are right." It taught me that I AM so much stronger than I thought. I can do hard things. I DO have time for the things I prioritize, and I will continue to show my son that his mom is courageous!Oh, and one more thing I learned... we can figure out EVERYTHING... to raise money for charity, my friend who owns a candy company gifted me chocolate bars... LOTS of different chocolate bars. I put them at the front desk of the local gym and sold them to members who were on their way in or out... I raised over $5000!You, too, can do great things, and the time is now... what have you been stalling on that you want to do?? Do it~