April 5th, 2012: So here’s how it went down yesterday (exercise, that is): I took the day off from work to be with my 2-year old boy – seein’s how I’m prepping to be a stay-at-home Dad by the first of June. So I went to get on the treadmill and set it to a 6 mph pace. You know that feeling you get when you break through the crust of getting warmed up – you start sweating a little, you start rocking to the music on your headphones (in this case it was .38 Special –Live from Texas), and you start feeling pretty damn good. Well, that’s where I was when the electrical breaker tripped because of my treadmill. Shit!!! I could have quit, I wanted to quit, but I just reset the breaker and started over again – then the breaker tripped again. So I reset it again, then slowed my pace and increased the incline, and tried it again. I did 20 minutes at 15 degrees incline. Okay, good enough.
But it bugged me all day, not to get a full workout in. And the weather here in Idaho, after snowing 2 inches the day before, was sunny and gorgeous. So I texted my wife and said, “listen, if your home by 4:30 we should try to jog 6 miles.” I was kind of just feeling it out, didn’t know what she’d say, half hoping she’d say “absolutely not”. She texted back, “be home in a minute, I’m already on my way.” Uh-oh.
So we did it. We ran frickin’ 6 miles yesterday. Without stopping even one time. And I had drank about a gallon of coffee earlier, so from about ½ mile in, until the bitter end, I fought the need to stop and relieve myself of it by puking. That sucked, but I kept going anyhow. Six miles at my current size is impressive – I don’t care who you are.
Today, I’m a bit sore, not as bad as I thought I’d be, though. We decided to change our half-marathon plans from August 10th to one on July 21st. Bring it on bitches!
Oh, and I did weigh today. 292. I better stay strong from here on out, and try to at least lose like 30 more pounds. At 292 I might sink helplessly into the asphalt in the middle of July.
April 5th, 2020: And yes, we did complete that half-marathon, and then another half-marathon, and then a full-marathon, and then a couple of triathlons, and then it snowballed. You chip away at anything for too long and every now and then a big chunk of wall gives way and showers down in a roar of crumbling concrete. Times like that are also more simply known as “giving the dog a bone”. The human spirit is damn near unbeatable in almost every situation, provided the motivation never dies. In my experience, it’s usually just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore when the universe has thrown me that bone. Conversely, many times when I’ve given up, but still probably did have gas in the tank, I’ve discovered that the finish line really was just around the next corner – and then I’ve had to live with that tenebrous knowledge.
I can’t let this die. I won’t let this die. I’ll run it until the wheels fall off – like Alex says. I know there’s a horse buried somewhere in all this horseshit. Sometimes you’re running and moving with the wind at your back – and so you relish those times and feel your power. Sometimes you run with the wind right in your fuckin face, only now you have a new perspective, and you’ve turned this liability into an asset. It is so much easier to breathe when you let the wind come unto you. Either way, you roll with the punches of this world and you keep your heading no matter what.
