My Experience Running Marathons in My 40s

 

As a kid, I never ran unless I was forced to.  Later in life, I discovered that I had exercise induced asthma, and that’s probably why.  But, despite my asthma and at the age of 40, I decided to run 42 kilometers for the 40 years I had been on this earth.  It’s a challenge I will never forget.

In this post, I’m going to share some of the experiences I had during and around the marathons I’ve run, including: Detroit Marathon, Chicago Marathon, New York More Marathon, Montreal Marathon, Austin Marathon, San Francisco Marathon, and Tucson Marathon.

Detroit Marathon, October 5, 2003

The night before the marathon, Rory (my husband) and I walked the streets of Detroit and happened to come across a barber shop.  Since Rory needed a haircut, we decided to go in and walked into what would be a great movie scene…

How I Came to Throw a Police Officer to the Ground

My journey into martial arts started when I was 15 years old.  My little sister asked our parents if she could take Judo lessons and my mother said “yes.”  However, unfortunately for me, I was told that I would have to do it as well.  I was not particularly fond of martial arts at the time; if given the choice, I definitely would have said “no.”  Nevertheless, I donned the uniform with my white belt and showed up.

Judo, meaning “the gentle or yielding way” in Japanese, was not so gentle in my eyes.  In fact, I became friends with an African boy at Judo, but that friendship wholly consisted of him throwing me to the ground.  Needless to say, I didn’t have much fun at all, but I continued to go to the classes and eventually earned a yellow belt.  As for my little sister, she continued on to the highest belt.

Fast-forward to 15 years later, at the age of 30, I came across an article in the newspaper about a young woman in Barrie, Ontario, who had a black belt in karate.  The blonde, petite woman that I saw in the picture was quite possibly the last person I would have imagined to have a black belt at the time.  As a result, reading her story piqued my interest and I inquired at the Dojo about joining.  Since my son (who was six) wanted to be a Ninja Turtle, then husband used to be a boxer, and daughter (who was nine) was also interested, the whole family ended up joining.