Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes… how do you measure a year?
Okay, we all love Rent (well, anyone with sense does, that is) so it seems almost cheap to use this question but it struck me and has struck me over and again how much can change in a year. I won’t even bring up all that has happened in the last year because until about June of last year, 2013 was pretty much shit. From June until the present has been pretty spectacular since I started dating and became engaged to the most amazing man alive.
Do you know what I will be doing at this exact moment one year from now?
Running a 50 mile ultramarathon.
You read that right.
50 miles.
Lake Martin 50 Miler to be precise. Between now and then I will marry my best friend, change my name, turn 35 (!), visit Canada, Maine, the Bahamas, Atlanta (well, hopefully we can swing the price of that trip because it includes seeing Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden- squee!), Florida, see Indigo Girls with the Nashville Symphony, see Tori Amos at Holy Mother Church of Music (you may call it The Ryman), and sadly continue on the journey that is terminal cancer with my sister. Maybe I’m missing some things in there but isn’t that a lot?! I mean, we have a packed year.
During this packed year of travel and great music, I also have to train for this goal race. First I have to survive running Oak Barrel Half Marathon completely untrained. I mean, COMPLETELY UNTRAINED. I’ve been getting to 4 miles at most lately. This weekend we are attempting 6. There’s only a week until the race so I’m jumping from 6 to 13.1. Eh, it’s only a half marathon. Totally doable and we are following it up with our yearly sojourn to the East Nashville Beer Festival! YAY BEER!
Then we have the Chickamauga Marathon to run, which is special to Racer K. Two weeks later, Tranquility Lake 50K. Yikes! Yep, marathon followed by 50K, almost back to back. We figure the marathon will be a long training run. Then we hit our training stride for the 50 miler.
I started on the ultramarathon journey over 2 years ago but I was in a car accident only 2 weeks before my first 50K. I completed 16 miles of the 50K on sandy white beaches but had to take my one and only DNF (did not finish). Sadly, so many traumatic life events between then and now deterred me from getting back on the path but now I’m there. Back to big dreams and big plans and nothing to hold me back!
After Lake Martin, we have more big plans ahead but first, we have a year to enjoy!
