As I was approaching forty, living in Charleston, South Carolina and supporting my two daughters by doing massage and baking cookies, my private ‘time out’ was a passionate early evening hour-long spin on my roller-blades down and around the Battery, up through the market, cutting back up to Colonial Lake and down to the Battery again and again. During this time I’d thank God for my body and for health and for strength and for the beauty of the world and the sunset and the pelicans and my life.
On one of these outings, a client of mine spied me, flagged me down and said ‘Hey! You’re really fast! The qualifying race for the nationals is in a month right here in Charleston, you could win! You’d be competing against eighteen-year-olds so I’ll help you get your cardiovascular up if you’re interested!”. I said ‘thank you’, skated away and thought “Never! This is part of my spiritual ritual and not something that I want to even consider!”
I slept on it even though supposedly there was nothing to think about.
By the next afternoon I was driving to a gym to begin my training.
The 10K race was held at The Citadel and there were masses of participants. The heats were chaotic, men and women together, lining up, taking off, winners of each heat being held for further rounds. I took my place on the starting line and the young man next to me, hyperventilating to pump himself up, swinging his arms and drawing lots of attention, shouted out “Everyone over thirty might as well just drop out right now!” An impish me leaned over and whispered in his ear, ‘I’m old enough to be your mama and I’m going to wax your apple!”
He looked at me with a smirk.
And so yes, The race was intense. I don’t know if I’ve ever pushed myself so hard and so effortlessly at the same time, but I used every bit of might I could muster to just keep up with the herd, as this young man had inspired me, and then I hit a groove, and flew. I crossed the finish line first. I threw up and by the end of the day I was pronounced the fastest woman in South Carolina, a rather fun title to wear. I won Ninja Turtle gear for myself and my girls, and I was invited to the nationals in Dallas. I didn’t go. I had totally stepped outside of my image of myself and had committed full force to this event and I found out that I could be mighty if I wanted to be.
This was good to know.