Saturday, March 5, 2011

Annie:The view from Pikermi

Not long after Mae and I launched the Thanksgiving Project, The Faithful Mo ran her first marathon - THE marathon, from Marathon, Greece to Athens.

I was (and am still!) amazed by that tremendous accomplishment, and remember being inspired that, even though the road to a hundred-pound weight loss seemed impossible from where I sat at the time, Mo might have felt daunted by the road in front of her, too, in the beginning.

I began thinking about my weight loss as a marathon of my own - though obviously it's not really the same thing! But as challenges of commitment and focus go, this was about as a big an "ask" as I could think of making myself.

So this week, as I (finally!) hit my halfway mark, I wanted to see my progress on my marathon.


Mo - do you remember Pikermi at all? What's it like? How tired were you? Did the halfway mark charge you, or did you have any doubts at that point?

As for me, I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it to my finish line - though after the last 3 weeks of plateau, I'm not necessarily confident it'll happen by Thanksgiving. If it did, it would complete the narrative nicely - but this story is about so much more than that.

If it doesn't, I'll just keep running until it does. :o)

3 comments:

  1. Questions for Mo! How fun!

    Yes it was daunting, and not only at the beginning. Yes I doubted at times I could do it, not at all during the race itself actually but during training, absolutely.

    The halfway mark question is a very interesting one to ask me because most people would say it was a real milestone for them and it meant a lot, but for me it wasn’t at all. I knew it was the halfway point because I was obviously watching the km markers, and I ran over a timing pad, but that was about it. The real place I had in my head that I could not wait to get to was Pallini (~km 27) because that’s where Mom and Dad would be. At about km 16 I started to feel my GI issues and had already made one toilet stop by the time I hit the halfway point. Physically, I was feeling really awful and knowing I wouldn’t come in anywhere close to my goal time was really hurting my mental state. Knowing I would see Mom and Dad at Pallini kept me going, I was looking so forward to seeing them. When I did make it there, I took the time to stop for hugs and kisses, pictures, and grab some TP (God Bless Mom’s purse!). Seeing them made a huge difference in my mental state. After I left them, I knew it would only be another 7-8kms until I would see my mister, and he would bring me in. When I did get to that point, not only was he there but Mom and Dad were there again too (I wasn’t expecting that!), so that was really, really great. From then on, I had mister to distract me from my tummy issues and knowing it was the final stretch made it seem easy. He broke off from me about 500 meters before the stadium which was really sweet because I had the time to myself to realize and appreciate what I was about to accomplish. The emotion I felt running into that stadium was absolutely incredible. Unfortunately none of them were able to make it into the stadium to watch me finish which was too bad for them but selfishly, I was SO happy to have them it made no difference to me, I would never have seen them in the stadium full of people anyway.

    I do also have to mention that I had prepared very well for negative thoughts and bad times during the race by preparing kilometer tributes and keeping certain mantras in my head given to me by various friends and family (including my 4 year old niece!) to get me through the tough times. I also had a huge amount of support back home during the race, knowing that my sister and brother and sister in law were up in the middle of the night watching my km splits was huge. Sister in law (and training buddy whenever we’re in the same city!) was sending me texts throughout the race and I saw them on my walk breaks so that was even more huge because I really felt like she was with me!

    Come to think of it, I don’t think I properly told those people just how much their support meant to me…

    Anyway sorry for the long story but the point of my post is, as much as they say a running a marathon or losing an incredible amount of weight is an individual achievement, it isn’t. At the end of the day, the medal or the scale report is yours but you don’t get there alone. It isn’t the kilometer (pound) or hour (weeks) markers that get you through the battle and to the finish. It’s the support.

    Keep running (or swimming!) and I’ll see you at Pallini in April! ☺

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  2. Annie sez: Well if support is what's going to get me there, I'll be flyin'! :o)

    I'll see you in Pallini. Is there something good to eat there?! ;)

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  3. You'll be flyin'!

    Pallini in April is your house!!

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