Day of Hope #30
Saturday June 13, 2013
Goal: Complete a half marathon
Quote: “No matter how slow you go; you are still lapping everybody on the couch.” - Unknown
When I was getting good at walking, one of my first unofficial half marathons happened by accident. A friend and I went to the Boise Greenbelt and planned to go see thirteen points of interest along the river but ended up seeing twenty-four. There is a map online. You can start from point one to point twenty-four. www.cityofboise.org - Boise River Greenbelt.
We walked from Willow Park to Barber Park, stopping to see each site. Willow Park is full of baseball fields, and there were lots of games going on that day. We headed to Veterans Park, but it was under construction. They were re-doing the whole park. We saw a map of what it would look like when it was finished. We will have to go back and check it out, but then we had to take a detour. Sometimes life is like that, and you must take detours, but you will still get to the end goal just on a different path, if you don’t give up.
We then headed to Esther Simplot, Quinn’s, and Riverside Parks. We saw surfers riding waves, people paddleboarding, and families having picnics. We went to the Firefighters Memorial and training facility which was very inspiring. Along the way, we went through lots of cool tunnels, and over some amazing bridges. Next was Kathryn Albertsons Park, where there was a big tree trunk they had preserved. It had 13, yes 13 dates of different time periods on it. We saw lots of waterfalls and deer at Shoreline Park and Ann Morrison Park.
Ann Morrison was the halfway mark, so we stopped and had our picnic lunch at my favorite fountain. We stopped at Pioneer Park and the Ann Frank Human Rights Memorial where they have actual recordings of the real voices from that time. We learned so much. Next was Julia Davis Park and the Cancer Memorial. The Cancer Memorial, for me, was the most humbling. Everyone has been touched in one way or another by cancer. There were so many things to look at we could feel the struggle, heartache, and hope that comes from walking in someone’s shoes with cancer on that path.
At Municipal Park there were lots of barbeques going on. We then headed to the MK Nature Center where they have lots of animals and fish to watch. We walked past the zoo and were greeted by more deer on our path.
At this point we were getting tired. We passed Warms Springs Golf Course 11 miles in; we had no idea how much farther we needed to go to get to the car at Barber Park.
We come up on the Bethany Church dirt trail, which seemed like forever. There was a nice couple who offered to give us a ride and we considered it, but we were too close to give up now. We trudged on even though we had sore legs and blisters on our feet. We are not quitters.
When we finally reached Barber Park, I have never been so happy to see my friend’s vehicle in my life. We made it! When we arrived at the car, I looked at my Fitbit, and I only needed to walk around the car once for my Fitbit to read, 13.13 miles. I count that as my first half marathon. We were so exhausted and sore, but we were also proud of ourselves for completing our goal. Such a great memory.
This month I also created the outline for my book at a restaurant in Chicago. Oh my!
My lesson of hope: Do what you want to do and know that you don’t have to follow everyone else’s rules. Follow your own rules and do it your way. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow you go. Just go.
