When I was a kid I had vivid dreams about a park. It was a park in the woods with a long, wide trail. In the dream I would be walking down the trail and arrive at a certain point where the trees draped over the trail making a beautiful, shady space. As an adult walking down a long, wide trail in Atlanta, I reached that space. I'm not kidding. It was so familiar to me and I knew the very first time I was there that it was the place I dreamed of. It's a 5K balloon trail along the Chattahoochee river north of Atlanta.
I started walking there pushing Lucky in his stroller when he was a few months old. I would listen to This American Life on my ipod and spend an hour shuffling along. I walked there pulling Lucky in a wagon when he was a year old. I started to jog a 1/4 mile at a time. Eventually, I worked up to jogging the entire 5K. I was motivated to run!
A year ago, I ran my first 5K race and I loved it. The energy of the other runners, the mutual participation in such a healthy endeavor so early in the morning was inspiring to me. I've run a total of three 5K races and a 10K race. My longest distance is just over 6 miles and I've distanced just over a hundred miles since September.
Most of my training for the marathon will be done at the park along the Chattahoochee. It was meant to be.
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