Outside the Comfort Zone

I have noticed that after some races, it takes me a while to get a blog post up. It seems to be particularly true with this, my first post-marathon blog entry. In my writer’s group last night, we were talking about blogging, and I felt as if I was Hester Prynne with a scarlet ‘A’ on my dress, only instead of an ‘A’ it was a ’12’ – for the number of days since my most recent blog update. Forgive me, bloggerverse, for I have sinned; it has been 12 days since my last post. Actually, make that 13 as of today.  Why in the world was it taking me so long to get this post done? Was it the dreaded writer’s block? Had my worst fear come true: did I have nothing to say?

As one of the wonderful facilitators/mentors for my writer’s group pointed out, it is important to have a mission statement or goal for a blog. I spent a moment thinking about what my vision is for this blog. Quite simply, it is to tell humorous stories related to these stupid things I impulsively do, things that put me on the edge of my comfort zone: things like going to Laos and Vietnam for vacation when it would have been easier to go to Florida, or running a marathon when I would rather stay home with a pot of coffee and the morning paper. So why couldn’t I write about my post-marathon experience? Why was I having trouble chronicling my adventures hobbling around on my blister-covered feet? Then I discovered the obvious answer: it wasn’t funny yet.

Sure, I could have written an entire blog post detailing every sore muscle, strained tendon and painful blister. But that just would have been whiny. Yes, I could have gone on about how I was proud of myself for overcoming the pain and finishing the race, pointing out what a great role model I was for my kids, but that would have been self-indulgent and annoying. No, I wanted my post to be lighthearted and funny. I had to wait until I could laugh at myself. And in order to laugh, I had to stop crying every time I encountered a set of stairs.

The post-marathon pain set in as soon as I finished. (Who am I kidding? The pain actually set in around Mile 18.) As I walked out of Grant Park with my family, I shuffled slowly beside them, my legs occasionally popping out from under me, a bit like the Tin Man when Dorothy didn’t give him enough oil. At the time it was pathetic, but looking back on it, I can see the humor. It was like I was the toddler in the family, lurching along with tentative, awkward steps, while they patiently indulged me, pausing every few feet for me to catch up. I half expected someone to offer an index finger for me to grab with my little toddler hand. Humorous now, but not so much at the time.

I can now laugh at the fact that when we went to visit friends after the marathon, I instructed my husband and kids to go ahead without me because I had to climb a flight of stairs, which would take at me at least 30 minutes. (Note to self: only visit friends with elevators on marathon day.) I can find humor in the fact that in the days following the marathon, I debated with myself about how badly I needed to go to the bathroom, because it was so painful to sit down and stand up again that I just decided to “hold it” as long as possible.

I can laugh about the fact that I felt like this:

and wanted to do nothing but this:

I had trouble navigating simple tasks, like standing, sitting, or going up and down stairs. I could have used this:

and especially this:

At the time it was pathetic, but now, two weeks later, I am not too embarrassed to admit that I used my cell phone to call the house phone in order to get someone in my family to come into the living room and help me up off the couch. I can see the lighthearted side of my walk around the block with a friend, who indulgently stayed with me in spite of the fact that I was shuffling along like a 93-year-old-woman. And I was so tired that I am quite sure I was incoherent and not much of a conversationalist.

Hmmm, as it turns out, it is still not that funny. Forgive me, bloggerverse, for I have sinned; it has been 13 days since my last decent blog post.