Margaritas, a Marathon, and a Mailman

A little backstory: I’ve had my share of injuries and surgeries over the years. I *used* to be a “runner” many years ago, but after two ankle fusions and a neck fusion…my running days were over. Or so I thought…

Over a year ago, I was messing around on TikTok and decided to start walking three times a week. In one of my posts, I mentioned that I had wanted to run a marathon, but with all of the injuries and surgeries I’ve had, I didn’t think it would be possible. 

Well, I kept up with walking all last spring and summer. And I was celebrating my birthday with my husband, my sissy, and her boyfriend at a local Mexican restaurant. We started chatting about my walking and probably had one too many margaritas….next thing you know, my sissy and I are signed up for a marathon in October 2026!

I kept up with my walking all through fall, and when winter came, I bought a walking pad. All winter and the beginning of spring, I used that walking pad. I was so thankful when mid-spring came, and I could walk outside again! 

Here’s the thing: I didn’t really have a plan of how I was going to go from walking to running that marathon. So my sister sent me in the direction of Hal Higdon, and we decided to use his beginner training plan. We counted back the weeks, and official marathon training started June 1st. I started unofficial training May 1st. Four days a week, mostly walking, throwing in a few runs to see how it would feel. It felt okay!

So here I am, three weeks into official training for an October marathon!

I’ve been doing great! Staying healthy and injury-free, listening to my body, and slowing down when I need to. Last week I was sick, like sick sick, and I took the whole week off. I was supposed to do my biggest run¹ yet last Saturday, 10 miles, but there was no way I was able to do it when I was so sick, so I continued to rest.

Nathan and I talked about how I could get my big run in, and we decided that as long as I felt good Monday, I’d do it then. Monday came, and I got ready for my run. I had a great warm-up and started my intervals. Things were going awesome! I had a nice walk/run pace. I felt like I could go forever. Around mile six, I was running on a bridge that spanned a highway. Someone *beep beep beeped* at me! I thought:

A. I either look like I’m dying and I could use an encouragement *beep beep beep.*

or

2. I looked like I was badass and it was a “You fucking go! *beep beep beep*

In my head, I picked option 2!

And then came Mile Seven. Oooof. The heat started to get to me. It was 78 degrees and two billion percent humidity, so it felt like “91 degrees.” I started slowing down, which was okay; “just keep putting one foot in front of the other”, I told myself. I’ve got this! At one point, I started a run interval, and I knew in fact that I did not *have* this. I chose to do a second walking interval, determined to start running after another small break. I tried again. It was a no-go. I checked my distance, and I was about two miles from home; if I walked the whole thing, it would probably take me at least 45 minutes in this heat. While I so badly wanted to get the 10 miles in, I also knew I wasn’t going to make it. I called Nathan to come pick me up, and good thing I did. By the time he got to me, I was finished. Completely trashed. Done.

He brought me home, I grabbed my ice water and sat on our bench to cool down. Nathan went back inside to work, and I chilled out. I was so hot. I took my tank top off and just hung out in my sports bra and booty running spanks.

Then my mailman walked up to me and delivered me a package….

And now my mailman has basically seen me naked. 😳

Midlife has never felt so good.

~Kimmie, XOXO

1. I say “run” but I’m still at the walk/run stage of my training. I’ve gotten it to three-minute intervals of walking, then running. ↩︎