I texted my sister a couple months ago to ask if she would train for a marathon with me. She is the best runner I know, so I had a feeling she would be in for this nutty plan. To my delight, she didn’t hesitate at all before saying yes and started asking which half I wanted to do and when. We’ve trained for a few halfs together, so she automatically assumed that’s what I meant, but I quickly let her know that, no, it wasn’t a half marathon. I wanted to do a full marathon. Clearly, she isn’t a Real Housewives of New York watcher.
Carole Radziwill (from the show), a 50-something-year-old woman who often talks about how she’s practically allergic to gyms and sports bras, trained for and ran the New York Marathon last year. I promise this isn’t sarcasm: The way she talked about it in the first episode this season was poetic, about how lonely the multi-hours-long race felt, even though she was surrounded by people on the same pursuit. It was shear self-control and power of the mind to keep moving toward the finish line, and once she crossed it, embraced by the family and friends out supporting her, she said the precise opposite feelings from loneliness overwhelmed her.
I was having a glass of wine while I watched her describe this experience (perhaps that’s why it was so moving?), and I decided I wanted to feel that. I wanted to see if I had the will and strength to run a marathon. If a middle-aged, out-of-shape Bravo-lebrity could do it, couldn’t I?
