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Too many in the last line?
Why was I such crap at composing haikus?
Why was I such crap at running?
Maybe I should just stop already.
Wouldn’t it be nice to stop?
It was a trick taught to me by an 84-year old nunSister Madonna Buder.
Madonna was the reason I was running at all.
Nine months ago I wasn’t a runner.
I was a smoker actually and a lazy elliptical machine user, about 25 lbs overweight.
I would get out of breath when I walked up the stairs from the subway.
That was how I metMadonna, pictured above here on her roadster.
Even at age 84, she still competes in Iron Man races.
“God, I could use some of that,” I told her during one of our conversations.
A half mile in I felt like a spear had been run through my side.
Then I lay down.
“What would Madonna do?”
She most certainly wouldn’t be laying in the grass looking longingly at an ice cream cart.
I kept on going.
I walked some more and I finished 3 miles in an hour.
When you have a nun as your role model you could’t give up.
I consider myself spiritual, but not religious.
I talk when I run.
I talk to Madonna in my head sometimes.
I compose my haikus.
I picture that little old nun’s wiry frame crossing the finish line and I keep going.
A few weeks into my training I quit smoking.
I started going to bed earlier.
Slowly but surely I could run further.
A couple of months in I hit a wall.
I had a permanent knot in my calf and I was slowing down.
Was I getting worse at this?
How was that even possible?
I seriously considered quitting my training.
A few days later I received an email from Madonna:
“Some not so good news!
When these things happen I always look for the message behind it all.
Madonna added that she also had a broken pelvis.
The news left me heartbroken.
I didn’t run for days.
I just kept thinking about Madonnasmall, bruised and battered.
A week later I was editing my chapter about Madonna.
I didn’t have my headphones or my water belt.
I just started moving.
I ran three miles and then five.
That was the longest I had ever run
I returned home barely winded.
I don’t believe in god.
But I do believe in nuns.
That day I think my belief in Madonna gave me exactly what I needed to keep training.
It will be only 14 weeks after my fractured pelvis so I’m asking for a mini miracle.”
Her perseverance makes it impossible for me to quit.
In six weeks I will run my first half marathon with a team from Yahoo!
theNike Women’s Half Marathon in San Franciscoto race money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
I still email Madonna updates on my runs.
Knowing that I am in her prayers and her haikus keeps me pounding the pavement.
Photo Credit: Dave Erickson
