Chills Down My Spine

It doesn't take long to figure out that no matter what sport you try, someone out there is doing it longer, harder, faster, better. Climb the Adirondack 46 High Peaks , and find out that someone has done them all in the winter, done them at night, done them barefoot or backwards. Train over the summer and successfully ride a "Century" on your bike, and discover that the strong club riders have done in 5 hours what took you 10, or that they have ridden 200 miles to your 100. So it goes.

Since I'm a back of the pack social athlete, I've figured out I'm never going to be one of those "guys" (or gals) but I do like listening to the stories. No matter what the sport, you can hear a good story just about anywhere, too, even in the locker room of your local YMCA

Let's take running - I was talking with my friend Bob today. Now Bob is one of the nicest guys I have ever met and he is very modest and not boastful in any way, shape or form. I happen to know he ran a marathon when he was younger, but the responsibilities of raising a family, working and doing all the good things that he does for the community took most of his time, and left very little for running. This year because he's an "empty-nester", with his son in law school and his daughter in college, he has a little more time, and decided to take up running again. In typical Bob fashion, he has worked very diligently at it, increasing his distance, and losing 30 pounds while he was at it. Last July, he completed the Utica Boilermaker 15K, no mean feat, and has continued to train.

Today he told me that he would like to run a half marathon someplace this fall, and a full marathon within the next two years, some time before his 50th birthday. I think that is quite a goal, and knowing Bob, he'll do it.

Since I find 5K's challenging enough, I am in awe of marathoners, especially those that I know personally, like my friend Barbara, my training partner Dodie, who did the Las Vegas Marathon in 2006, my training partner Jenn B, marathoner and mother of 3, and my new training partner Christina, the swimming sprite, who has run the Boston Marathon (before she was legally able to quaff any of Boston's finest after the race, from the looks of her!)

The guy dressing two lockers over from Bob heard us talking, and mentioned that his wife had run a marathon last year in - you know where this is going - Antartica!

"Wasn't it cold?"

"No - they ran it in February, which was their August"

Technically, she didn't exactly run on Antarctica proper - here's a little from the website:

"The course on King George Island located off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula loops through the scientific research bases of Uruguay, Chile, China and Russia who provide water, medical assistance and supportive cheers. Great care is taken to leave behind zero impact on the environment in this sensitive ecosystem."

Wow! - a marathon in Antarctica - that most be the ultimate marathon accomplishment, right?

Nope - turns out they established this marathon because:

"The goal of many marathoners is to run a 26 mile race on all 7 continents. This is the only opportunity to run a marathon on the "Seventh Continent".

Yup - they established this race so that the true nut-jobs would have something really challenging to shoot for!

I would love to be a fly on the wall, some day, some where when our locker room friend is telling the story about his wife and the Antarctica Marathon and the guy two lockers down says,

"That's pretty good - one down, only six to go!"

Longer, faster, harder, better!