What is 13.1?

This may mean absolutely nothing to one person, but to us it is a goal that has been conquered.

In 2002 Bill and I ran a 10K run from Women’s Forum State Park to Multnomah Falls. Ever since then he has mentioned that he would like to run a Half Marathon and wanted me to do it with him. I poo pooed that idea because it wasn’t me.

A few years ago Bill said that he would really like to run a Half Marathon for his 60th Birthday. So I started putting my thinking cap on, and earlier this year opportunity knocked and I grabbed it to help make Bill’s dream come true.

I won a membership to Portland Fit, which is a running group that trains people to run the Portland Marathon in October, and Con-way offered 50% discount for employee’s and their spouses. So, I signed us up and Bill and I agreed to stick to the schedule, make the commitment, and accomplish his goal.

The first weekend in April was the first meeting of Portland Fit and it was a 3 mile run to identify which pace group people were placed in. Our pace was slow but steady and we were given a schedule of three runs each week for a specified period of time with a long run on Saturday morning.

We have been very committed to the schedule and unfortunately we both got sick in early June which threw us off the Portland Fit training schedule as that group ran their Half Marathon on June 13. As a result we backed up their schedule found, another Half Marathon to run on July 4th and have been training on our own since then.

As the run grew near our excitement started to grow. The weather unfortunately wasn’t cooperating this week as the temp has been in the 90’s but a goal is a goal. We were up at 04:00 AM this morning and out of the house at 05:00 driving through town to Sauvies Island. The route was 13.1 miles around the island. The organization is a fabulous job of supporting the event as water, etc were available every couple of miles.

Probably 3 miles into the run there was a big sign posted that said “There are many obstacles in Life…..This is not one of them!” Yes we can!

It was pretty inspirational and several times during the run we both said….yes we can….to encourage the other to keep going.

We held hands as we crossed the finish line, we each received a medal as a “finisher” and what had originally been Bills goal to do a Half Marathon, also turned into mine. Not only was this my gift to him, to support him through training and help it success, but somewhere along the way it also became my goal.

Goals are amazing things….they take time, commitment and result in a tremendous sense of accomplishment.