NOT a Spokesman for Gatorade

I miss running. Running is big in my family. All of us except my mom has pretty much been really into it - competing in races, heck my 70 year old dad still runs at the junior college track every week at Southwestern College. But a bad knee and hip injury at 30 when I had finished my first and only half-marathon and was training for a full one, has side-lined me from running anymore.

Then today as I sit here not quite 36 years old, and aching through my 3rd month limping on my torn miniscus in my knee that has made me gain 7 pounds and putting my modeling career in jeapordy for the time being (not to mention just not letting me work out for my own sanity), I come across this ONE-HUnDRED and ONE year-old bloke from England who ran and completed his first marathon. And check out his post work-out routine...

This 'Chariot of Fire' is burnt out!

I have been a runner my whole life. My whole family, except for 1 sister and my mom, runs. My dad still runs at the track and is in his late 60s! When I was a kid I saw my oldest sister be the MVP for her high school track team. I ran around my big back yard so much pretending I was a horse that I actually wore a track in the grass that took years to regrow once I had stopped.

In short: I love to run. But now I am an old lady with a broken down hip and knee injury that doesn't let me do it much anymore. And that really stinks. When I was 30 I made the goal to run my first half-marathon in Long Beach, CA with my 2 brothers, 1 brother-in-law and 2 friends. And I did it! Then I made the goal to train for a full marathon - the Rock "n" Roll marathon in San Diego. It was then that I pulled up as lame as an old horse on his way to the glue factory. That was a good 4 years ago now and I have not been the same gal since. Now luckily I like enough other modes of fitness to keep me interested in exercising but I really miss running. I miss being out in nature every day. I miss the alone time to reflect while running. I miss the fun of running with someone else too (granted they weren't faster than me). Last night Patrick did another Hash Run (see previous blog) and I couldn't join him because last time my leg gave out at the end. It really stinks! I'll never forget how when I passed under the finish line at the half-marathon the sense of pride I felt manifest in a lump of my throat. I am a very hard person on myself and it's not often I feel proud of myself. The fact that they were playing a Duran Duran song over the loudspeaker made it even more 'radical' to this 80s girl!

So why the lament on running? I just got back from a call back for a great model print job for Adidas catalog. I was the oldest girl they called back (they wanted 28 and under) but the fact that I look younger than my age and that I can pass for a few different ethnicities probably helped. They liked me. You could tell I was a runner - unlike some other younger, much more toned and tanned girls - I had on real running shoes, that were actually worn and dirty and I RAN like a runner. Not all bouncy and cutesy. But I sure wasn't as bouncy and cutesy and toned as those young-uns were - shoot! I'm old and broken down and that big paycheck would really come in handy so I can buy my ol' Irishman the flat screen TV he wants - (lol!!)

Oh well, I can still always get the thrill watching the Summer Olympics and my siblings race