by Jim Pickett for Ambiente
So yeah, it’s my fourth year running a marathon to raise funds for HIV/AIDS prevention and care services through the AIDS Marathon Training Program .
Five years ago I thought the people in this program were nuts; nice, warm- hearted folks with good souls, okay, but completely whacked nonetheless. I felt a mixture of sympathy and repulsion for them and all that running – running 26.2 miles just seemed so over the top – what with the bleeding, the chafing, the crippling, hobbling, agony of it all. Sure, it was for a good cause, one that I – a person living with HIV – certainly believed in wholeheartedly.
It just so happened that I began running 5 years ago, the first year the AMTP was in Chicago. Having come from a completely non-athletic, fully asthmatic, totally uncoordinated background, it was a joy to start running and slowly see progress happen. And it was slow – it took me weeks to work up to a mile but for some reason, I kept at it. I was determined to shed my roll of pudge in the middle, and be able to run for the train without a lung exploding. The first day I ran 5 miles without going Code Blue was next to miraculous… On a super-achiever day I could even run 7 or more miles.
Me! I was the kid who went out for freshman track in high school – Lord knows why – and lasted all of one day, almost dying in that singular workout .It took me weeks to recover and walk normal again.
Read the rest on Ambiente.
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