The Announcement
Here goes nothing.. or everything. I had a thought a while back that has now manifested into a semi plan of action. I’m completely vulnerable putting this out there in public, because I honestly don’t know the outcome or the reaction or even the importance to anyone else except myself. Might be totally stupid. Many of us construct well thought out, witty blog and Facebook posts, Tweets, YouTube Videos and general statements. We think, write, revise, and try to perfect. Many times we only share once we are sure that the outcome is a success, like “I got a PR in my last marathon” or “Transformation Tuesday” or “I just finished building this piece of furniture”. I do that too because it makes me less vulnerable and because I’m less likely to be judged if the outcome is a success. I’m trying to do that less. I’ve already been sharing on my Instagram #thisisreal #thisisme” because I’m trying to be ok with not being perfect, or always put together. I think part of this was when I was training for the 2017 Lake Placid Ironman and felt like I was such a failure in my preparation. Once I read a post on the group page of someone who is now a dear friend that shared that she was only able to do certain amounts of training and that made me feel that I would be ok. I went into that race only having swum about 10 times, longest run of 13 miles, with my longest and only bike of 100 miles. So I am not even editing this post (and I know it’s already too long) because I want to share with you my raw and unedited thoughts. I’m going to try and do something in the next two years that might be totally doable or half possible or unlikely. I don’t know and that’s ok. Many of you know my life changed drastically this past year as one of the most important people in my life was taken (My Dad) and if you don’t that’s ok. I’m not that egocentric to think that all my Facebook friends read my status. Before this I had always wanted to make he and my mom proud. I am definitely naturally competitive but I loved being my best for them since they had given me a wonderful life. I love trying to do things that I might not even believe I can do, but I’ve always tried. It’s scary when you fail. I do it all the time. So I’m putting this out there and it might happen and it might not. I still want to make my dad proud. I WANT TO DO THE 2020 NYC MARATHON. I’ve done it 3 other times and the last time in 2015 I gave my dad my medal. I now have it back. I’ll be 40 in 2020 and want to something sort of different outside of a cozy dinner with friends. I don’t want to depend on the lottery for this race and to be perfectly honest, I have done charities and they are wonderful, but honestly, I’m not able to decide on a cause. The last way to get in is being a part of the New York Road Runners and doing the 9+1 for guaranteed entry in the following year. So 9 qualifying races and one volunteer event. I said to myself one day, hey why don’t I just do the 9+1. Screw it, I’ll find a way to fly in and plan out 9 races in the year. With miles and staying with friends I think I can do this especially with the schedule having some races back to back. I was a decently fast runner at one point and fit and I lost that in 2018 because of almost losing mom in the fall of 2017 and then my dad. I was lost and unmotivated. I’m trying to claw my way back to some sense of normalcy, so that is my plan. I am currently trying to find out if I’ll be the first person this far away to do that. I flew to NYC last week, ran the 10K at my slowest pace to date in the rain and cold, but I was smiling the whole time.
I’ll be creating some kind of structure to my journey where the two year goal plan would go something like this.
Paris Marathon: 4/12/20
London Marathon: 4/19/20
Boston Marathon: 4/20/20 (One edit: this is a long shot considering my current fitness but I qualified 2x before so there is a chance)
NYC: 11/1/2020
I am sharing this journey with anyone who is interested so I would be accountable and so I would also be ok with the possibility of failure. My dad was an engineer and built many things in NYC. I’m doing this for me with a little inspiration from him.
