Month: June 2014

On June 23, 2014 I stepped on the doctor’s evil scale.  The same scale that scared the heck out of me a year earlier.  The same one that foretold the warnings I had received moments later of being a pre-diabetic, of being morbidly obese.  Now, a year later it told a completely different story – it was the story of “normal”.  Weight is measured in pounds in the USA, but healthy weight is measured in part by BMI – body mass index.  Mine a year ago was “morbidly obese”, then it climbed (down) to “obese”, then to “overweight”.  Now, on this day, one year from when I started, I was in the “normal” category for my height for the first time since probably 7th grade.  Few people I know would call me “normal”.  For once though, I was happy to be “normal”.

Orange County is blessed with many recreational opportunities, chief among them is the County Heritage Trail.http://www.orangecountynyparks.com/heritage-trail/  Returning from Hawaii I found myself on that trail jogging on a regular basis, which by June had become full scale “running.”  I decided in June of 2014 to “go big or go home”.  That meant one thing:  I was going to run a marathon.  Where better to try one:  Goshen, NY of course.  So I set my goal – don’t run a 5k (which is 3.1 miles I now knew), not a 10k, or a half marathon.  Nope – it was GO BIG OR GO HOME.  I was going to run the Hambletonian Marathon in Goshen that October.