Peer Pressure

This coming Saturday, two friends of mine will be toeing the line for their first marathon. They have been training the past 6 months with Team in Training (TNT) for the Mayor’s Marathon in Anchorage, AK (and raised money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society along the way).

It has been so much fun to watch them go through the training process and I can’t help but feel a tremendous amount of pride at the progress they’ve made. Six months ago neither one would have dreamed of running a marathon and now here they are, running their first marathon, talking about running other races, including triathlons. It has been rewarding for me to be a part of this process even if it was just as a cheerleader.

I will also admit to a fair amount of both jealousy and nostalgia at running a marathon for the first times. I’ve already had my experience facing the unknown and made it out the other side a better person. That is where they are; poised to make a leap off a big cliff, hoping to land safely at a bottom they can’t even fathom. It is an experience like no other.

This past Monday evening I spent time with them as they decorated their TNT race singlets with their names and messages to those special people for whom they were dedicating the race. They were anxious and nervous and full of questions. However, they were also full of enthusiasm but not just for the race ahead of them.

Their enthusiasm for their own abilities was, in a word, infectious. High on the idea that they are capable of accomplishing so much more than they had previously dreamed, they have decided their next goal will be a sprint triathlon. Normally, this would be a wonderful goal to shoot for but they’ve gotten it in their heads that they’ll do it only a month after their marathon!

They poked and prodded (although I will admit they didn’t have to poke or prod nearly as hard as they should’ve had to) and eventually I caved. That’s right; I may have agreed to try a sprint triathlon in only a month’s time. Eek! I did agree on the condition that one of them teach me to swim (she’s was a swimmer in high school and college and continues to swim for exercise).

I totally caved! Who in their right mind who go in to a triathlon completely untrained…not even under-trained but UNtrained? Someone who bows to the intense enthusiasm (read: peer pressure) of her friends, that’s who.

(The good news: I looked up the tri they wanted to do at the end of July and it looks like registration is full….saved by online registration, whew!)

Daily Dozen:
Slept in – today is a recovery day! Yay!