My “Goofy ” Challenge Training Partner, Steve Hauck, and I after finishing our Goofy Challenge last year. It was at Disney, and it involves a Half Marathon, 13.1 miles on Saturday, followed by the Marathon, 26.2 miles the next day. The goal was to finish, and to pace ourselves evenly to do it. It was an incredible goal, and it felt great after we finished…but…that was not the greatest accomplishment that came out of this. The greatest accomplishment would be being able to do this with my training partner…together…after everything he had gone through.
The beginning of the journey started a year and a half prior to this event. Steve wanted to run a marathon to celebrate turning 50. I was helping him train, and we were going to do the Fargo Marathon. 3 weeks prior to the marathon, Steve began having issues with his heart, and went into a rhythm called atrial fibrillation. We had to shut him down, and he underwent tests and treatment for this, including what is called an ablation to treat the abnormal rhythm. It was a success, but he could not do Fargo. I ran on my own, with Steve watching…I don’t know who was more bummed…
…me running alone, or Steve not being able to run. I held my medal up to his heart after, and we vowed we would do this again. Steve wanted to get going with a marathon, and decided that it would be the Disney marathon 7 months later, so that was the new goal. Well, he did it. Here we are coming down the finish, celebrating the finish of the marathon for him!
Steve accomplished his goal of completing a marathon, and I had a healthy training partner/friend to celebrate it with! And celebrate we did!
We splurged on the “good stuff” after the race…reward for working our butt off! Of course, we had to be hamming it up for the camera the rest of the vacation as well!
Here we are showing off our medals with Mickey! It was a great trip, and Steve finished his first marathon. But, something was missing. He wanted to go back to Fargo to finish what we had initially started…so, off training again to get ready for it in another 4 months. It was a much smoother training period this time around, and we did it…finishing the Fargo marathon that May of 2013.
Our running did not stop after this. We challenged each other again by doing the Goofy Challenge in Januray of 2014…and made it. The stories we can now tell…who knows, most of them later when we tell our grandkids may actually even be true! But, we have pictures to prove it. The bottom line with all of this is we can set goals, and try to achieve them, but the fun in all of this is the journey along the way. As I mentioned last week with Tom…we did lots of talking, solved lots of problems, and learned a lot about each other. Those are the memories that will last forever. The marathon finishes are just the icing on the cake. The shirts we wore say it all…Success…A Journey, not a Destination!
Absolutely no doubt in my mind about those 2 years being a success! Just remember, nothing worth doing means it will be easy…if it was, it would not be a challenge. If you can do this, you feel like you can take on anything that life throws your way. We all know that there are ups and downs in life, and the secret to how it goes depends on how we handle it…our attitude dictates our success. Never say never! Be safe and faster your seat belts…the ride of life can get bumpy at times! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 2907