Thursday, August 5, 2010

Writer's Workshop - Stepping Outside the Box

Mama's Losin' It

First off, let me just say that there's not an athletic bone in my body.  In high school, I was in marching band and I honestly can't remember ever running the required mile in gym class.  I've never liked to sweat, in fact, if I begin to feel close to it, I generally head straight to the a/c.  That being said, when a coworker and I were reading the paper and talking about the Tower of America's Run/Climb over a break; never in my wildest dreams would I have even considered what I was about to suggest.  "Kim, let's do it."  In case you don't know what the Tower of America's Run/Climb is, here's the details.  Competitors run a mile around Hemisphere Park and then climb 952 steps to the top of the tower.  Sound fun? Another coworker who'd run it before did his best to bully encourage us to try it.  With the deadline looming, we paid our registration fees and then made a plan.  Of course my husband's encouragement was along the lines of "make sure your life insurance is paid up" or "are you crazy?".  He even bought me the Biggest Looser knee wrap ice packs.  We practiced on the stairs at work during lunch instead of our usual 2 mile walks, readied our play lists and promised to take turns pushing each other up the stairs.  The day of the race came and we were ready.  Our goal was 35 minutes.
We got separated in the staircase; you can't hear your partner in a dark stairwell with earphones and hundreds of feet pounding the steel stairs!

After asking God to "just take me now" about three times, I made it to the top in 37 minutes!  My friend was waiting for me at the top with water.  I left mine at the bottom and was tempted numerous times to beg strangers for water...I didn't. Not wanting to wait for the elevator, we took the stairs back down...that was more nerve racking than the trip up!

We made it!!  After some lovely language on the trip up and swearing that I would never do something this crazy again, we're making plans to do it again in 2011.  The deal was that if she did that with me, then I would do the half marathon for the Rock 'n Roll Marathon with her in November 2010.  I'm not sure what I was thinking...other than stepping completely "outside my box"!  There is still not an athletic bone in my body...I'm channeling my deeply, and I mean deeply buried athlete!  

Me, Kim's Daughter, Kim...we did it!
If you'd like to join in the fun, stop by Mama Kat's and choose your prompt.

Mandy

7 comments:

  1. haha..I had to turn on my AC just reading this! That is great! Good luck with the looming marathon! :)

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  2. I'm not the least bit athletic either. The extent of my exercise is dancing to the "Disco Abs" workout on Exercise TV!

    I know that I could never climb those stairs.

    http://www.theliterarylioness.com

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  3. Whoa!!! This did sound crazy! Was it for charity? Sounds like you did really well with your time goal! I am impressed. I'm glad you had fun and are planning more torture in your future! LOL!

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  4. Bless your heart! I once had to walk DOWN 14 floors in a skyscraper during a fire drill and I seriously wanted to die. My legs were like jello by the time we got to the bottom. Some people walked back up when it was over. I thought they were nuts. ;-)

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  5. Stopping via mamakat- holy cow woman you are a rock star! I am so proud of you and we havent even met. walking up the stairs to my apartment wears me out. good luck on your other adventures! you will have many athletic bones soon
    lauren
    www.thealbertshouse.blogspot.com

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  6. Julie,

    I can't remember who it was for, but it was for a charity. I'm awful though, I didn't want to know anything about it so that I wouldn't cry when I got there! I knew it was something great for kids that are affected with the disease, but that was it. We did the Susan B. Komen 5K back in April and that one was tough...not crying, that is. It was an awesome thing to see all the survivors though...something we've got bookmarked again!

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  7. Wow that is great and let me say how proud I am of you. Those stairs must have definitely been the hardest part. I think the fact that you walk 2 miles everyday is a big plus. When my back gets better I am going to make it a goal to take a walk of some kind every day and to keep up with my back exercises.

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