Why is it that every January I get all resolution-y?  Oh, yeah.  It’s because it’s January and that’s when people get all resolution-y.  But anyway…

Running a Marathon is something I’ve always had in the back of my head… way, way, way back, but in there just the same.  I actually began a journey back in 1980 to run a Marathon.  Jane had just been born.  I wanted to lose a ton of weight (yes, I had gained 2,000 pounds while pregnant with Jane).  I had never run, or jogged as it was called back then, a step in my entire life beyond the things that kids do at play.  I bought the Bible of jogging, The Complete Book of Running by Jim Fixx, and devoured every page in every spare moment I could find.  I even took notes.  I didn’t buy any fancy gear or anything like that because no-one really did that back in 1980 (well, the women in my town who did jog wore very scanty jogging shorts that I couldn’t fit over my big toe).  I did buy a pair of sneakers, though… they were red, white & blue.

I actually remember the first time I went out to jog.  I left my house early on a January Saturday morning, hoping no-one would see me.  I ran off our front porch, onto the driveway, took a left then a quick right and another quick left.  This brought me onto a fairly long road.  I remember approaching the cemetery with the big hill where we took the kids sledding… and then I couldn’t breathe.  I was in a full-blown asthma attack.  I had asthma as a child, but everything had been very under control for years.  I turned around and hobbled home.  Gasping for air.  Bent over.  Almost hoping someone would see me.  I got to the front door and practically collapsed inside.  I had jogged about a half mile.

I never ran again.  (4 years later, when Jim Fixx died of a heart attack… that sealed my running deal for good.  Or so I thought.)

Until October 2009.  29 years later.  I had watched my children from the sidelines enough to know that I really did want to do this running thing.  So one night in October, I put on some sweats (again, nothing high-tech) and and old pair of Janie’s running shoes… and ran.  I ran around a short block.  I waited for an asthma attack that never happened.  Then I ran again a couple of days later.  A bit farther.  Soon, I was running a mile.  Then 2.  Then 3.  I did my first 5k and felt the accomplishment of finishing a marathon…

I stayed with it.  I ran a 5-miler.  Then a 10k.  Last winter I ran a Half Marathon.  Last summer I completed a Half Ironman.  Depending upon weather, my lungs may play little tricks on me… but nothing that would make me stop.

Now it’s time to put the Marathon Dream into place.  It’s been a long journey.  A long dream.  A big dream.  A gigantic dream.  A challenge that makes my stomach flip.  But it’s in me.  It’s in my veins for some reason or another.

So I Did It.  I registered for a Marathon.  The Cox Providence Marathon… May 1, 2011.  Ah, ha! Yes, January is all about resolutions, and this one’s been a long time comin’!