Redo State #11 Gulf Shores, Alabama

Big Beach Marathon

January 27, 2019

New year...new goal back to hill training

Life does not always go as planned and it's our job to navigate and readjust. As long as we do not throw up our hands, in surrender, we can recalculate and find a new path or a different end goal. In either case we may end up bruised and battered, but as long as we remain steadfast in the good fight the possibility for joy and enlightenment still exists. At least that's what I keep telling myself.  Okay...now that the new year~fluff~of unrealistic goals and bombastic expectations are over...It's time to get back to basics. January 17th is the magical day most people give up on New Year's Resolutions! 

Where will these feet take me...

As sad as that sounds, those that keep going, (40 percent) will continue pursuing those goals through May. No resolutions for me other than not being considered "a regular" at In and Out and  Rubios!
Regardless of my eating habits and lack of fitness, I will beat the odds and accomplish the goal of running a marathon in all fifty states. Although I remain only cautiously optimistic about ending my "regular status" at my favorite food joints. Last year (2018) I kicked off January at goal weight with a run PR, but as the year unfolded it was a downward spiral month by month generating some uneasy feelings. 

Fought so hard to lose those lbs...and those lbs fought so hard to come back!!

Jellyfish...

As 2019 gears up with only a few states left, a gloominess resides within and only I can decide how to play my hand. Yes...we will finish our 50 states in the next six months, but the question remains will I make the most of the remaining miles or will I just get through them. Waste each day or get the maximum out of each day, that is the question? Basically people have unrealistic expectations about how much can be accomplished in any given day and underestimate what can be accomplished in the totality of a year. (Stolen gem taken from a podcast) Stitch its, advice or words to live by, as my daughter calls them are best left sewn into a pillows. In other words, talk is cheap actions are what matter. So instead of thinking I can shed fifteen pounds (by next week and turn around a negative mindset over night) realism must pave the way. Maybe as the year passes 

the pounds will fall off and my negativity will be left permanently behind on the roads of Connecticut, Ohio and North Carolina and gratitude will fill any remaining empty spaces. My speed and stamina undoubtedly will take months not weeks to rebuild...if ever. Our season starts with a training marathon in Alabama and more importantly it's an opportunity to erase a six hour marathon from my run stats...             
Redemption here we come! Oh wait! my knee hurts! A two month break from regular running is designed to give me a chance to rest up and heal from the pounding of the previous year, but my body does not recover as much as I hoped and getting started again is not fun. Honestly, I may be on the downward side of the marathon running slope, but I will fight it all the way down. To quote Harper Lee, “Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”  I would never call myself courageous, in any way, in fact most of my life I have chosen the easier less scary path, but I do plan to complete this goal fat or fit, depressed or elated~The final finish line will be crossed!

As we pull into long term parking, I wonder if the car window will get stuck again...the way I seem to be stuck. Just in case my husband hops out to grab the ticket. It works just fine at the fast food drive up window, but why add to the wonder and worry especially since my knee is my biggest  concern. We leave the house at the crack of dawn and sixteen hours later, lay our heads on the pillow to sleep in the quaint little beach town of Gulf Shores. It is my crazy idea to redo Alabama...Now it  

is the last thing I want to do. I can't be the little boy or "old lady" that cries wolf anymore. My husband does not want to hear it. Even though my knee has been acting up making running difficult, my husband says, "You will be fine you always are!" He is right. I am ever so careful with my knee placement and slow my pace and what do you know, I make it through the Big Beach Marathon fairly unscathed. I moan and groan in the process of getting to the start line, but once it begins I  

am in it for the long haul and just like that the magic happens. At mile seven a doctor in training asks what mile we are at and a conversation ensues. It is his first marathon and he says he is doing it to strengthen his mental fortitude. He keeps me entertained and is a wealth of knowledge for several miles. When I tell him it is my 91st marathon he replies, "What, marathons can't be that hard then!" How true that is...they are only as hard as we make them. I sort of lost him a few miles later when politics, a taboo topic, is broached and I can't refrain from sharing an opinion. Let's not go there...no surer way to offend people these days. Thankfully, I catch up to my husband a few minutes later and we run together for several miles. The race thins out once the half marathoners break away. It is a course full of trail roads and bridges and is quiet and isolating. Good for self-reflection! We are so close to the ocean, yet never get a glimpse of it until the final turn at the finish line. Once I am over the halfway point, I know I will finish faster than planned. In the last ten miles I make it my mission to pick off as many runners as possible. A slow going effort, but I mange to pass fifteen runners while three pass me. I pass one man in the last half mile, who passes me right back in the final shoot.

I am elated to complete the race in spite of having to buy a knee brace something I sworn I would never wear again. Never say Never! My husband is right behind me and we celebrate in The (heated) Hangout, the perfect place to recover while listening to music and eating the food and beer provided by the marathon. Our crazy little weekend jaunt to a small beach town on the Alabama ocean shores is just what we need to get our run year started.