There’s nothing normal about running for over three hours. Absolutely nothing normal at all. Only crazy people do things like this.
That’s what went through my head for most of the last hour of my 17-mile training run Sunday morning. If it hadn’t been for three things, I don’t know that I could have done it:
1) Friends. A friend of mine joined me for 10 miles, and the conversation really helped me to keep going. But once she finished her run and headed home, I headed back out for another hour on the trail, and when I felt like I couldn’t run another step, I thought about the great friends and family I have who have supported me so far in my fundraising for Charley’s Fund. Even when I was on my own on the trail, I knew I had friends who had my back. You all helped me keep going.
2) Owen. I started this whole 50 states thing because I wanted to raise money to find a cure for DMD, and I recently read that Darius Weems, an inspiring young man with the same disease as Owen, would be celebrating his 21st birthday on Monday. When I started to feel my muscles ache around mile 13, I tried to replace thoughts of stopping with thoughts of celebrating that big birthday with Owen in 16 years. The money you donate to Charley’s Fund makes it more and more likely that Owen make it to that milestone.
3) New York City. I’ve long been a fan of that city, and one of my best friends in the world lives there and will be running the NYC Marathon with me in a few short weeks. That race is, after all, the reason I was out there running 17 miles in the first place, so when I didn’t think I could go any farther, I thought about running through the streets of all five boroughs with the whole city cheering me on. I’m so excited to run one of the biggest marathons in the world, and running it for Charley’s Fund will make the experience even better.
So while it may seem like a crazy thing that I’m doing – running 13.1 or 26.2 mile races in all 50 states – in 38 days, I’ll be standing on the Verrazano Bridge with 40,000 other people who are just as crazy as me. And I think that will be pretty awesome.
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