Last weekend, my rinky-dink hometown of 2000 put on a half marathon. It was a fundraiser for the Lutheran church. They dubbed it the Any Way You Can Half Marathon: Half the Run, Twice the Fun. The flier announced, "Run it, walk it, bike it, golf cart it, any way you can." I couldn't resist such a fun race in my hometown.
There were 8 people on foot, 4 runners and 4 walkers (counting myself as a walker), 20 or so on bikes, a couple on scooters, and one guy driving his lawn mower with the grandkids riding behind on a cart. It was very casual--no official time kept, no medals, just a t-shirt and a post-race lunch. When I got there, I found out the course wasn't actually a half-marathon. Andy (who organized it) thought going from the church in town to the cemetery in the country and back would be pretty close, but when he actually measured the course it was only 11 miles--too short. A longer route heading west out of town was 14 miles--too long. Taking the longer route out and the shorter route back put it at 12.5--pretty close but still a little short. He ended up deciding the official course would be the longer 14 mile route, but that people had the option of taking the shortcut back and saving 1.5 miles. This was fine with me. One of my goals for the summer was to do at least two 14-milers. Turns out I was the only person on foot to do the full 14 miles. I finished in 3:32:35, which was pretty close to my goal time. I was happy with it even if I was the last one to finish (the 3 walkers behind me gave up around mile 8 and were picked up.)
My dad biked the full route, then walked back out via the shortcut to meet me and walk me in. He ended up doing about 8 miles walking. It was nice to spend time talking with Dad.
The route took us past my late best friend's childhood home. It brought back a lot of memories of laughing, crying, sharing secrets, and singing (LOTS of singing) together. Lisa loved to bike and liked to walk. She would have been just as tickled as me at the idea of Roanoke having a half marathon. I could see us walking together chatting the whole way. Of course, Lisa's death of leukemia was what motivated me to start endurance racing in the first place. If she had never had cancer, or had survived it, would I even have been walking it in the first place?
