Part 5: The Inspiration Dinner

We were told to show up early to the dinner because the line gets long. There are close to 5,000 TNT athletes alone, not to mention the coaches and other volunteers. So the dinner is held at a convention center nearby. We had to wait outside until they opened the doors. I found out quickly why they wouldn't let us wait in the lobby. They were building a gauntlet.

From the moment you stepped foot in the convention center, you were in a gauntlet of cheering people. You had to walk through two thick rows of people cheering, clapping, yelling, ringing bells, blowing horns. It was just CRAZY!!!!

The dinner was on the lower level but you couldn't take the escalator because it was lined with more cheering people. So as you crested the stairs you could see the lower level and there was a SEA of more cheering people! 

Those of you close to me know I am not shy! But the energy and just the number of people and the fact they were cheering for us just got to me. I ducked behind Kris and let him lead me down the stairs. Within a few seconds however, I heard Kris exclaim, "This is wrong!". Then he grabbed my wrist and pulled  me in front of him and made me go down the stairs first!

I was doing pretty good keeping the tears at bay until I spotted this one guy on the right bank of the escalators. He was particularly enthusiastic and was leaning as far as he could over the railing and screaming and pointing urgently at the sign his was holding. I read it and it said, "I am a survivor because of you". That just did me in. That's why we trained for 5 months. That's why we sacrificed our time and our families. It made a difference to that man. And there are more out there like him.

Sorry, I was shaking when I tried to capture this picture. 

I made it through the rest of the gauntlet and made it to the dinner table. We ate dinner and waited for the inspirational speeches to start. I knew one of my top three running heros had spoken at a TNT dinner in the past. I mused about how awesome it would be if he happened to be the speaker at this dinner. He wasn't. He was the M.C.!

John Bingham walked out on the stage!!!! I couldn't believe it! He is the man that convinced me I could run! In his books "No  Need for Speed" and "The Courage to Start" he taught me you don't have to be built like a runner or even fast to run. In fact, he started the "Penguin Brigade" which are runners who 'waddle'. I am definitely a penguin!!! And lastly, he convinced me it's never to late to start. He truly introduced me to one of my greatest joys!! And there he was .....introducing another one of my top three running heros: Joan Benoit-Samuelson!!!!! OMG!!!!!

Joan Benoit-Samuelson won the gold medal in the first ever women's Olympic marathon in 1984.  That was the first time women were allowed to run a marathon in the Olympics. Can you believe it???? 1984!! That's barely 25 years ago!

For the majority of the twentieth century it was widely believed that women shouldn't run long distances. Besides women not being encouraged to be active and athletic, many people (even doctors) thought women would ruin their chances to have children if they ran too much. There was widely held fear that women's uteruses would jiggle out of their bodies!!




Kris and I had read this some where early on when we had started running. In fact, we would routinely joke about it. I'd come in from a run some days and say:

"Wow! That was a tough run!!"

Kris: "Did you jiggle your uterus out?"

Jill: "Yeah, but it's ok. I picked it up and put it in my waist pack."

Kris: "Thank goodness you didn't leave it behind like last time. Took us for ever to find it!"

And so on the banter would continue.

I just can't believe the ignorance that was prevalent back then.

So there I was listening to the woman who snatched the gold at that first women's marathon. And not only did she take the gold, but she pulled ahead of the competitors early in the race and kept the lead the whole way! And she is one petite woman!

Joan Benoit-Samuelson is not your tall lanky runner type. She isn't any taller than I am. I was encouraged to see someone my height tear up the marathon course. Who says you have to have mile long legs to be a good runner? This gave me more encouragement.

Something else that is encouraging to me is that Joan and my other top three running hero (Katherine Switzer) is that they are over the age of 50 and are still running. Joan had finished the Chicago marathon barely a week before and she ran a solid sub-3!!! It cheers me to think I'll be running for years and years to come. I'll be happy if I 'run myself into the grave'. Ha ha.

After Joan spoke, John Bingham got back on the stage to give encouragement especially to the first time marathoners. He gave us some tips on what to expect. He said to be prepared to, at some point on the course, to look at our running partner and think "I wish you would just SHUT UP!"

Me and my running partner Cindy

I couldn't imagine that! My running partner and I enjoyed each other's company on every run. Even the 20 miler! But I had heard about those times where you just get agitated and everything annoys you. I think you get that in every endurance sport as I had experienced that on several of my long distance rides too. Our coaches called those times the "dark places". I was hoping to avoid those places the next day.

As we made our way back to the hotel after the dinner, I noticed I was getting more and more anxious about the race. I was breaking racing commandment #4: Manage Your Fear. There was a million things that could go wrong and attempting the longest route I'd ever done on an unfamiliar course was scary. Until I told myself, "This is just another long run with the team." The moment I put it in that perspective I instantly calmed down. After all, I had done a long run with the team a million times with no big tragedies. 

I had nothing to worry about.......

"I Can't Run" - The Funny Things People Say

My husband is on the far left. I am in the front row on the right.

My husband and I are so surprised how many people quickly claim “Oh, I can’t run.” when they hear that we run.

I don’t understand why so many people are so sure they can’t run. Especially after they hear I run. My goodness! If I can run anyone can. I am not built for running. I am 5 foot tall and quite thick. When I say ‘thick’ I mean I weigh about as much as my husband who is 6 foot 2 inches. He, by the way, is built like a runner. There are two big secrets to running, that if everyone knew these secrets, no one would think “I can’t run.”

I remember before I started running I perceived running to be quite a feat. I had heard about people who were runners to the point that they claimed they can’t live without it. That they HAVE to run and when they don’t they feel terrible and even the people near them can tell the difference. 

I thought something was wrong with these people. That they were rare, and special and very very lucky to not just enjoy something that burns up so many calories but NEED it.

I felt terrible when I had run in the past. When I look back, I never really ran unless I had to. For instance, in gym class. I have never heard of any gym program teaching people how to run. For me, it was always, “Ok class, we’re starting our running unit today. Run around the perimeter of the gym for 40 minutes then hit the showers.”

The skinny and athletic girls would take off running chatting to each other as they made lap after effortless lap around the gym. The rest of us girls, (the over weight, the unexercised and the druggies), would plod along gasping for air and hoping the stitches in our sides would go away. Forty minutes later, the gym teacher would blow her whistle indicating the torture was over for that day and it was time to shower. 

The ‘runners’ would trot into the locker room while the rest of us would collapse in individual heaps. The strongest of us would crawl to the locker room under our own power while the rest just laid there until the air came back to their lungs and heart beats finally regulated. 

The gym teacher would bark at us, “Come on girls! You’ll have to do better than that! You’ll have to run a six minute mile by the end of the unit to pass. That’s only six weeks away. You’re going to have to pick it up!”

“Oh my God! We have to do this for six weeks???”

Every class was more of the same. Run run run. Just run. No coaching. No starting at the level you were at. We were just expected to run. I mean after all you can’t teach someone to run right? You just put on shoes and go run. Either you’re good at it or not. 

Well, high school is many many years behind me and I hope they don’t still treat running in the same way. I learned that while running is incredibly simple. You do need to ‘learn’ to run in a sense. 

If you decide to become a runner one day and just take off on run, my experience is that you will not likely stick with it. Let’s face it; running is a high impact sport for sure. It is highly stressful on your joints, muscles, cardiac system, and some times psyche.   Unless, you break it in slowly you’re going to be overly tired, sore and feel like here is one more thing you're not good at. If you break in slowly and work up to running for significant times or distances, it can be just the perfect medicine for your joints, muscles, cardiac system and psyche.

Through my childhood, college and most of my adult life (ok, all of my adult life to date) I have struggled with weight and body image. I kept trying to take up running because I thought it would burn off the most calories in the shortest amount of time (which is for the most part true). But I could never stick with it. How do people do this?? I hated running. It hurt, it was hard and I was so sore the next day it just made it harder to run. 

I felt like crap mentally too because I knew I couldn’t run like all these other people I saw at the gym and on the road who actually seemed to enjoy it! I was never much good at anything remotely athletic. So why should I expect to be good at running? It would just have to be something I forced myself to struggle at or just simply give up trying.

So I just gave up trying. But I was always intrigued. And one day I ran across the book “No Need for Speed” by John Bingham. I read the description on the back and decided to give it a read. I believe that book is what opened the door to me to become a runner.

Mr. Bingham didn’t start running until he was in his forties. In fact, he became an “adult on-set athlete” at age 43 when he was 80 (that’s eighty) pounds overweight and....get this...a smoker!

If this guy could run why couldn’t I? What was his secret? How did he get past the pain and the fatigue and soreness etc?

Unlike my gym teachers, Mr. Bingham did not recommend going out and running for 40 minutes at a time. In fact, depending on your fitness level at the time you want to start running, Mr. Bingham suggests you might not run at all!

Huh? If you haven’t so much as taken a walk since Howdy Doodie was on the air, he suggests you start out walking only. Once you do start running you still don’t just run. You warm up by walking five to ten minutes then run for one minute (maybe 30 seconds) and then walk for five minutes (or ten or fifteen). 

That is big secret number one of runners: None of us (with very few exception) started out running full miles. We typically run a little bit at a time and then run a little further on the next outing. 

In fact, Mr. Bingham cautions not to do more than his prescribed program directs. Even though you will feel like doing more, don’t. Because if you do, you’ll over do it and be too sore to do your next ‘run’. 

Even now that I have a couple solid years under my belt as a runner, it is a rare occurrence for me to go out and run my full distance without any walking breaks. In fact, elite marathon runners often use walking breaks and find their overall time to be better for it. 

So that leads us to big secret number two of runners: When we say “Had a great run today!” We likely walked part of it.

So if you think “I can’t run.” I reply with confident “Yes you can.”


There are many books on the subject of running out there today. It's easy to find many with beginning runner plans in them. I invite everyone who has entertained the idea of running to check out these walk-to-run plans and give it a try.


While Mr. Bingham's book was a great start for me, I can also recommend Katherine Switzer's Walking and Running for Women Over 40.


You can run.