No 50 Mile Race for Me.

After running my first marathon, calendar year 17 turned 18, I really wanted to run a fifty mile race. My grandpa helped me register for a 50 mile race on Bear mountain in NY, he paid for it with his credit card. That military man grandpa of mine, thinking I could run a fifty mile race on Bear Mountain back then, he would always stand up when I walked into a room out of respect; something good came of that career of his before becoming a teacher of STEM. Not all men know to stand up when I walk into a room, a woman walking into a room is extremely profound and should be respected, like the respect my grandfather showed for me by always standing upon me walking in the room. Sometimes men just need to go off and learn to stand upon a woman entering a room. No matter how serious his merkel cell carcinoma skin cancer treatment became, during radiation therapy, he always found a way to stand up whenever I walked into the room. That standing ovation, is the reason I am grateful to have always brought him a chocolate milkshake, even if he would not drink the milkshake because the ice cream parlor accidently gave me vanilla instead. My grandfather, adored me sending him Chocolate Pizza Company wings during his cancer treatments, however my grandmother is the one whom actually ate the chocolates.

I trained very hard for this event, but it just did not end up working out. However, I started running ultra distances on weekends, which was pretty impressive. Maybe, someday I will run the fifty mile race, and see how much money I could fundraise doing it, still bothers me that it did not work out. I feel like I can run the marathon distance well and race it, but running 50 miles would be a hard distance for me to actually race. Maybe I could finish it, but I would not finish top 3, I feel it in my heart. Failing something does not mean you are a failure, 50 mile races are just not for me. I run marathons and everything under pretty well, to be experimenting with something else! Though his last Christmas gift to me did not come to fruition, I feel it is a blessing in disguise that I never ran the fifty mile race, my quads would have hurt a lot afterwards. That previous fall of 2013, after completing my Maine Marathon 26.2, I suffered from stress fractures in both feet and my muscles were still glueing back together. Even though I could still run, fifty miles would have been pushing it for me. Bear Mountain will always be a place I never ran the 50 mile race, my grandfather paid for, but that is fine; he would be upset if I ran a race that intense against my will, even in spirit. My grandfather’s funeral was too close to the race weekend, for me to compose myself to run, or have my dad drive me down to the race.

How far can I go? How fast can I go? What distance do I feel good enough to combine those two ideas of long and fast? The marathon distance in over a couple of hours, is my final answer.

The North Face Endurance Challenges, are the events I looked into, and registered for the Bear Mountain 50 mile race in 2014, but it just did not work. Being that I live in NY, it seemed most appropriate out of all the options; easier of a drive than Maine. This race was registered for, far before my Habitat for Humanity trip during my spring break. I really wanted to wear rainbow spandex for the 50 miler, but my sister bought me some for the Boilermaker 15k, we finished hand-in-hand. It was a disaster. However, life moves on. I am good at running marathon road races and on bouncy tracks in race flats.

https://www.thenorthface.com/en_ca/get-outdoors/endurance-challenge.html

Wearing these shoes for my 26.2 mile race in October of 2013, fractured both of my feet, and gave me the worst blisters on the bottoms of my feet ever. If I had worn better shoes, I would not have had stress fractures in either feet, nor needed crutches or an elevator to make it to my British Writers I class freshman year. At least the chevron socks are nice, and I evidently made a friend in the elevator on my way to class right after running my first marathon and tearing every muscle in my body on top of little stress fractures and blisters everywhere on my feet; he knew how to make a freshman girl from NY feel special. I should have an expert scientist explain why these shoes are horrible for running marathons in, and what would happen to a 110 pound girl running 26.2 miles in them at the age of 18; mandate someone carrying my books for that month afterwards. Should I get my cool aunt to get a court order to retroactively mandate someone help with my books on the way to all my classes post first marathon freshman year?! My dad offered to hire someone, but I was too embarrassed to take him up on it, like I was too embarrassed to use the wheelchair at the airport and walked on my crutches to my connecting JFK flight with my backpack on; nevertheless, I managed to make it to my classes and my flights on time. In JFK, I actually let an elderly man have the wheel chair, and my flight was not too far away in another terminal or anything, those airports can be very big or very small depending on the day. My best friend from highschool actually happened to be on my flight from Syracuse to NYC, but she had to go all the way to Greensboro NC, a man was very nice to give up his seat to let us sit together the entire flight. Suppose I could, have it all retroactively. The best way to find a wife is to carry her books after her first marathon whilst wearing the absolutely wrong pair of shoes. Things like that are why I made the big move to NIKE.

So happy NIKE makes more supportive pink marathon sneakers for me now…