By the Numbers

Yesterday I learned about Gladys, the 92-year-old woman who is the oldest woman who has finished a marathon. It caused me to wonder if at 92, I would be willing to even try a marathon. I won't know until I get there, but I do hope I'll at least give it a shot.

I'm not a runner, by any stretch of the imagination. I wog (walking/jogging), and even do that at a slow pace. I have dreams of stepping up to jogging, but I'm going to have to get a little more dedicated before that dream comes to fruition.

Today I had a chance to look at what I have done in my wogging career. I've scrapbooked all the races I've completed. However, I've gotten slack, and in fact have been about a year behind. Today I took the time to get caught up. While these scrapbook pages may be nothing to brag about in terms of presentation, they are a visual recording of past experiences.

I also caught up my my race list that lists races, dates, distances, places, and paces. Here's what that list told me:

My first race was in June of 2000. It was a 10-mile race out in the country. I was using it as a training run for a marathon that I was going to do that fall. My niece did it with me, and we were pretty much last. One little boy who was passing out water told us, "You're going to have to run if you want to win." It didn't help. By the time we got to the finish line (this was after the firetruck signalling the last runners had given up and passed us), the race organizers were taking the finish line up, and we had to ask someone where the finish line was. But we finished, and that was the start of my wogging career.

Since then, I've done the following: 56 5Ks, 33 half-marathons, 12 full-marathons, 3 13Ks, 4 10Ks, 5 5-milers, 3 15Ks, and single races of 2.3 miles, 12K, and 2.5 miles. There have been some really slow races, and some that have only been moderately slow. There have been some that I didn't get an official time because they took up the timing mats, but I finished and got my medal. There have been races in the boiling hot sun and in a cold sleeting rain. There have been hilly races and flat races and a combination of both. Some days I did two races in the same day. And one weekend, I did a half-marathon on Saturday and a full marathon the next day. As I went through my five race scrapbooks, I remembered the races, where they were, and who might have done them with me.

By the numbers, I should be a wogging fool. I hope so, because there are still a lot of miles to cover until I'm 92!

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Today's blessings: Wednesday butt camp; catching up on my race scrappys; finding my overdue car tag registration; no line at car inspection station and nice tech; short line at tag office; sub lunch delivery via Steve