Hi. My Name is Jill and I’m a Big Girl Athlete

I’ve posted before that I haven’t considered myself an athlete for most of my life. Mostly, because of my body size. I don’t look like an athlete. But there’s no denying that I am. 

My trainer mentioned the other day that a friend of hers (who happens to be a big girl) gets frustrated when people act surprised that she’s an athlete. I see where she’s coming from. I mean, you don’t have to be tall and skinny to be an athlete. I can totally understand someone getting frustrated that someone assumes they’re not an athlete because of their size. Don’t judge a book by its cover. (You should read me first. I have a great plot line; and a surprise ending!) 

But I happen to enjoy watching the surprise on peoples’ faces when they find out I run marathons. It kind of fun to watch the expressions pass over their face as they: size me up, try to decide if I’m joking. Then the eye brow raise when they realize I’m not, followed by the smile of awe that a big girl can run marathons. 

I like breaking people’s stereotypes. But even more, I like being an example of what people can do. After they say, “Wow.” I say, “Yeah, I love it. So what do you like to do?”

Rarely, do I get the answer of, “I run too.” Or any activity for that matter. I do sometimes get, “Well, I wanted to start running  but....” But I find it odd that I don’t know a lot of people who have a passion for an activity. 

Why do I care? I don’t care so much what people do with their time. But when you have a passion for something, you don’t want others to miss out on the joy you experience. You know what I mean? Like, if you are really into stamp collecting, then you want others to know how fun it is because you are sure they’ll enjoy it as much as you do. 

Of course, not everyone will enjoy stamp collecting. But it’s hard to understand that when you are a hard-core philatelist. 

So it’s hard for me to understand why other people aren’t into regular activities either. People will tell me they don’t have time, they are too old, too fat, they have kids, etc etc. But I keep thinking if they knew how good it makes you feel and how fun it is, they will make time for it, not worry about their age or weight and they would take their kids with them to enjoy the activity too. 

I know it’s hard to move from a sedentary lifestyle to an active one. But for me, it was just about finding the activity that made me feel good. The trick however, is to give activity a fair chance to hook us. After listening to me expound about the joys of endorphins for about the millionth time, a friend of mine went to a cardio class. He came back and told me, “I don’t know what you are talking about! I sweated for an hour in that damn class and the endorphins never showed up!” 

My husband and I chuckled. Endorphins usually don’t show up the first day. The first day your body is just trying to survive this new assault on its status quo. It doesn’t know what is happening or what to do about it. It’s not until you repeat this process several times that the body realizes you are going to keep doing this crazy thing. So it better do something about it. That’s when it starts pumping out the endorphins. That’s when you get hooked. 

It’s like budging a boulder downhill. It takes a lot of effort at first. But once you get it rolling, there’s no stopping it! 

So go out, try something. Give it a good push! 

Running in the Rain

I've been following a running program since July. It's pretty easy to run in July. Unless of course you live in one of those areas that isn't just hot in July but humidly hot. (Like let's say Iowa).

But it gets harder to run when the weather changes and it turns 'cold'. Cold to me now is anything under 70 degrees. But in places where it really gets cold (like let's say Iowa), cold is more like -70 degrees. No one runs in Iowa in the winter. Except that one guy in Des Moines. But I think he's being chased.

Anyway, I am doing what I can to stick to my running program even though it's 'cold', and dark and like the other day rainy.

I always say, "It's not about doing it. It's about doing it even when it's hard." So even though the forecast was for rain that day I packed my running clothes and had my husband drop me off at the office on his way to work that morning.

I was going to run home after work. Only 2.5 miles which is a regular length for me since I am still very slow. But at least I am running. I was able to leave work early that day. So at least I wasn't running in the dark.

But I was running in the rain. It was a light rain by Iowa standards. In Iowa the rain is usually heavy. But there's not a lot of substance to California rain. So it was not too bad. I'd be a little damp when I arrived home. But I didn't fear being soaked.

So I am running on the sidewalk down the main drag that happily leads right into my neighborhood 2 miles down. It had been raining all day and I noticed this road floods when it rains! The road was two lanes in both directions and I noticed the cars consistently moved to the left lane when passing me as to not splash me. One driver couldn't move to the left because there was already a car there. So she slowed down as much as she could and crawled past me. All she did was lightly spray my sneakers. No problem. I had already had to run through a couple unavoidable puddles. My feet were wet anyway.

I thought this was really nice; how she did what she could and the other cars we taking care as well. It's times like these that my faith in human kind becomes restored. Sometimes I get so discouraged by the show of hate in the world. Sometimes I believe we really are going to kill all of us. That evil will prevail because humans just are jerks and can't get it together and learn how to love each other. But this encouraged me!

So I was glowing. My steps were strong and light. I was thinking, I can't wait to tell my husband how nice the people in this town are! I knew he'd be happy to hear it as he is the one who usually has to put me back together when my faith in humankind is flailing.

And then I heard it.......


ssshhhhhhssshhhhhssshhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh no! The car was coming fast! I saw the wave coming up behind me in my peripheral vision. The wave towered over my head and came crashing down in a frigid, muddy, gritty, FRIGID dump! It didn't shower down on me. It dumped!

The shock of the cold took my breath away. I was gasping trying to get my lungs filled up again. I checked the road quickly. The left lane was clear. They could have gotten over. That and the speed they past me as well as how their car was hugging the curb, told me that was intentional. Mean spirited humans.

I kept running.

I didn't show any reaction. We all know that it would be most satisfying to them for me to show signs of surprise or upset or better yet show signs of anger. Flip them off or yell at them. No. I'm sure they had a good laugh at splashing me. But I was not going to give them any bonus material.

I kept running. And enjoyed my run. I enjoyed knowing many more people took consideration toward me. I enjoyed the cooling effect of the wave (after the initial shock). I enjoyed the fact that it didn't phase me. I could keep running with dirt on my face, street water dripping from my hair, the weight of a now soaked backpack, grit in my shoes and wet cloudy glasses.

I enjoyed being a fat girl running. Who wouldn't let anything stop her.