The Benefits of TNT

So when I joined Team in Training, I joined because of a person and a cause. I felt it was my way of doing something. I also thought, hey this is the only way I will ever get through a marathon and I'd really like to be able to do it sometime. What I never thought I'd get out of those four months is people. I guess I never went to the info. sessions and heard the stories. I saw pictures on the website, but I figured those were people who went into it together and were celebrating where they were on the other end. I never thought that they might not have been together from the beginning.

I remember my first run, that first Sunday morning at the McConnell Heart Health Center (MHHC), standing near a few people who appeared to be near my age as they talked about how in a few months these practices will take us all day and how they (like me) have no idea how they will be able to run 8 miles, let alone 26.2. They also said they weren't sure if they would run the full or the half (they ran the full). I thought, OK, I've got a lot in common with these people.

Then they ran. I was no where near their league. I found myself closer in speed to the fat old men or the little old ladies or the walkers for that matter. By the time I got back to the MHHC those people who in the beginning of the morning I thought I might have something in common with had already gotten in their cars and headed home. When was I supposed to bond with them?

Honestly, I have no idea when I did. Kevin and I started to talk at a golf outing. We had breakfast together another time with Brittini and J. We met up at a bar during an OSU game. We talked before practice. But I can't really tell you that there was anything significant or any one time that made it so these people are ones that I care about and treasure.

All I know was that sitting there, drinking a beer or two on Tuesday night with Brittini, Lynn and Kevin (those same people that I stood near that first day at MHHC)...I realized that TNT gives you more than the confidence to finish a marathon. It gives you what you put into it. It gave me people who I care about, people who I think about, people who I pray for, people who I can call and have a beer with, cry with, or hang out with.

I wouldn't have finished a marathon without Team in Training, heck I probably wouldn't have even started one, but I also wouldn't have some special people in my life that mean more to me than the 26.2 miles that I ran.