When I turned 49, I knew I would have to do something big before my 50th birthday. I decided it would be a marathon — my dad did a marathon when he was 40, and I admired that. Of course, my dad was a runner and had run for years, but — whatever. I walk! I can run. A friend, Pam, had also, separately, started running, and she recommended an app, the Nike Run Club (also: free!). So, reluctantly (I always said I hated to run); I started to train.

I trained for a few months, then my shin started hurting so I stopped. I went to a physical therapist who said, in summary, ‘you’re fine, keep training.’ So in August I started training again. I met a board member at my job who recommended a marathon on Dec. 2, in Rehoboth, because it wasn’t too crowded (I was hoping to just run by myself, but bathrooms and water would have been a problem) and it was VERY flat. I .. signed up. It was actually the very weekend that my training finished — which I hadn’t know when I started training! Anyway, I did it — just 6:00 hours, and I walked the last three miles.

One guy on the run part, before I started walking around mile 23, said, “is this your first marathon? You are like a metronome, just exactly keeping the same time!” It was the BEST compliment and I pull it out regularly.

I actually did kind of like running — the places you see, getting their on your own two feet, the strength you gain, etc. But! I was sad I walked the last 3 miles. So! I signed up for ANOTHER marathon, this one in Jim Thorpe, Pa., and asked some friends to run it too (at their own paces, but just good to know they are there). One of the Nike Run Club runs was an ultramarathoner who said even as your body says ‘you can’t keep going’ you have to trick your body and say ‘yes I can.” Even if you BELIEVE you can’t — you have to say you can and do it.

I loved that run and I love that advice. So, two and a half weeks ago I started training again. And now I’m up to 10k on Saturday (last) and 7 miles on Saturday (next). And I do feel like walking, or stopping, and just like that lady said, I say, “nope, I’m able to and I can.” And so far at least (these are very short distances, comparatively!) she’s right — I can.

That’s what I’m trying to teach myself, too — that I can do things that I have always thought I couldn’t do.