18 Nov 26.2 Miles & Boot-Legged Knees
If someone would’ve told me over 10 years ago or ANY Years ago for that matter; that I would run a FULL Marathon, I’d say they were insane! A LIAR in Fact! I have been made aware and can bare witness that my family has a history of “degenerative knees”. We have a long history of knee replacement on my maternal/matriarchal side. “Boot-legged” knees is what I call them. My granny’s aunts have nearly ALL had replacements and she has had BOTH done! We also have the audacity to suffer arthritis. I remember in high school after a lacrosse game; I started feeling the tingling in my knees, and I chalked it up to stuff that athletes endure. Nothing more or less. Turns out; that was the beginning of my knees sending the “WE-ARE-BOOT-LEGGED” signals.
So how in the “Green Eggs and Ham” did I end up running 26.2 miles a month ago on this side of 40? It’s SIMPLE. Have you ever wanted something SO BAD you’d do just about ANYTHING to achieve it? THAT’s exactly where I am, and I would be lying if I said I haven’t felt this before, I can bullet ALL the times I have felt this way:
*When I left my PhD to become a Full Time Stand Up Comedienne 15 years ago
*When I went from chemically treated to ALL Natural Hair
* When I wanted to have an ALL Natural Child birth…3 separate times
*When I wanted to Breastfeed each for a year (exclusively, NO Solids)
*When I wanted to get my “BODY” back after EACH Pregnancy
*When I wrote MY BOOK
*When I wanted to fight for my FAMILY!
*When I applied for the Open Society Institute Community Fellowship
…in no particular ORDER
****WHEN I WANTED TO STAY SANE AND OUT OF PRISON
Yes, the last one may seem strange, but events in my life, being a wife, mom and aspiring Comedienne, have lead me down some challenging and dark roads. And in full disclosure, I could’ve easily gone straight…PARK HEIGHTS…21215…”Google It” to get and understanding for my non-regionals reading this post! Yet, the former was not an OPTION~
Being a wife meant everything to me…for so long. Being a Mom…was a gift I wasn’t even sure I deserved… and having the uncanny gift to MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH…was and is still the most humbling thing in the WORLD! Yet in no particular order; all of those things have been challenged, called into to questioned and attacked on any given SUNDAY, with no advance warning. So one day…in the midst of it all…I STARTED RUNNING (Boot-legged knees and all), bones rubbing and clicking along the way! Funny Thing, the murder weapons I conjured in my head to end the lives and agendas of my attackers (real or imagined), started fading to BLACK and I could see the LIGHT at the end of the road.
Running became and is my therapy, which is so helpful, since I am the sole payer of my HEALTH INSURANCE and did not factor in a Mental Health Benefit…thinking…I’ll NEVER NEED THAT! (teachable moment: get your mental health benefit updated today, before your OBAMACARE becomes your DRAMA-CARE)!
SO 26.2 miles later…I am UNSTOPPABLE (by his GRACE) YES for all of you …”I don’t do GOD folks reading… and I liked JESUS…he was a cool GUY Folks (in that intellectual vernacular)…”I KNOW’d DERE IS A GOD” (in SOPHIA’s/ Oprah’s Voice from the COLOR PURPLE) because with these rickety, clickety knees and 40+ yr old bones there is NO plausible way I should’ve been able to PULL this OFF!
I ran and keep running so I can SHOW UP… I wear a lot of hats and I refuse to transfer one for a Protective HELMET!! I’m just saying…
I PRESS…
MESHELLE “The Indie-Mom of Comedy”