Then last Monday, I saw something.
A half marathon in the Everglades? My chance to avenge my dad, right?
No. Well, not really. This is the joke I am going to make but really it is a chance to spend time with my father in Florida around Thanksgiving. It has been years since I have had a Thanksgiving with my father and I can look forward to this.
(The course, in Shark Valley. Out to the observatory and back.)
Now, I have never run a half before, and apart from training for a couple of them, I have never really had the inclination to actually run one. I am happy with the 5k as a thing.
(Troy Turkey Trot, 2015. The Boy looks delighted.)
A 5k is fun. It is a lark, for me at least.
This will take training. Or more training than I am used to.
I go for a run a couple of times a week. Some weeks it is two times. Some weeks it is five. Some runs are two miles. Some runs are five. Occasionally, I will push it to seven. Now, I have to double it. Well, almost double it. Through a swamp.
I went back to Union a couple of weeks ago to get TEA and Union Lacrosse t-shirt and picked up a Union Track and Field tee. (No one was amused when I asked if they just had a "and field" shirt.) I was not the best athlete in college, and shot putters are rarely great runners, but I lettered and I am proud of what I did. That was also twenty years ago, yet I am still built like a shot putter and I am stronger than I was in college. What I am saying is that I can run as much as I want and I am still going to be a big guy. Not fat, per se, though I am bigger through the torso than I should be, but stocky. Keg shaped. (Some of the younger people reading this, those who still have metabolisms that allow you to live on a diet of pizza, beer, and the fried food group and maintain abs, may not understand that it does not last forever.)
So, I do not look like the guy who can successfully run (and yes, I mean run) 13.1 miles.
But...
I am going to do it.
