Wildly Following My Heart: It's Not Hard

As I walked around Chester, England, having completed my second marathon in a month with a friend I'd never met in person until the day before the race, I got to thinking about how differently we humans like to live. Many people would never want to run at all, let alone train for the (some would say 'intimidating') marathon distance. I've talked to plenty of people who don't want to travel at all, let alone to countries outside the United States. To someone who neither wants to run nor travel, traveling for races is a WILD and perhaps ridiculous idea, further downgraded by many who are concerned with cost or safety of these adventures. That is not me at all.

It's wonderful that people are so different, and it's part of why I decided to take on this marathon-a-month streak and travel to races -- I'll find my people. If marathon runners are less than 1% of the population, we can assume they aren't in general abundance in my neighborhood, just looking for dates. If we further assume that not all marathon runners like to travel, that eliminates many potential mates at local races. At this time of life, running, racing, and traveling are very important to me, so it's key to find someone who doesn't think it's too much to travel to Brazil and run the Sao Paulo Marathon just for the heck of it. Anyone wanna come? I hear it's lovely. I have no other reason to go than the desire for adventure - no particular time goal or World Marathon list I'm making it through by running Sao Paulo - nothing. There is also no reason not to go. THAT is the point.

When I consider the qualities that I'd like to find in a partner, I think of someone who is bold and brave and unafraid to set hard goals. Someone who isn't afraid of hard work. Someone who has follow-through and grit, but who finds lessons in letdowns and challenges. Someone who appreciates humor like amazing race signs and black toenails. Someone who takes training seriously but allows themselves to have fun as a main goal - like during the trip for the race itself. Someone who loves people and seeing them succeed. Someone who encourages others and lifts them up. Someone who enjoys understanding more about other cultures through travel and new foods and the history of a place. Someone who loves adventure and doing things for pleasure, because life is just too short. Someone who understands that our M-F jobs are not the point of life. Someone genuine and real and unafraid to be truly themselves. Someone who loves to bring out the best version of themselves through hard work, and encourages others at all levels to do the same.

When my friends and I trained for our first marathon, we decided to run a destination race, the 3 Country Marathon through Austria, Germany, and Switzerland at the base of the Alps along Lake Constance. When it came up on conversation, people would say things like 'you know, they have marathons here in The States' or 'I could never do something like that!'. We decided to make it even more of an adventure, flying through Iceland each way and driving through Liechtenstein en route from Switzerland to our AirBnB in Germany to make it a 6* country trip. During the race, we ran through a town named 'Hard' as the sign alludes to above, which has a clear and apt meaning to the English speakers. If that wasn't challenging enough psychologically, it was a looped course, so we got to run through it twice. I can attest that it was definitely HARDer the second time.

The race was a huge personal accomplishment for all of us, and the trip was the reward for all the months of hard work we put in to get to that point. Our adventure was characterized by bell-wearing cows in the Liechtenstein countryside, fresh caught fish and delicious chips along the Icelandic shore, motorbiking gents on the volcanic rock in the Icelandic countryside (or biking vikings as we dubbed them), fresh pretzels in Germany at Octoberfest, and novelties like the convenient bread machines at the German Aldi. The kind of partnership I'm looking for will be primed and ready to have adventures just like this - and with tales like 'remember when we started the 5k going the wrong direction!' 'remember when we lost your passport and had to drive to the embassy'! These kinds of adventures aren't easy, it's true. But sometimes HARD is just about perspective.

The people I'm hoping to meet - and have already started to meet - while on this adventure, are more likely to share these sentiments with me. They are doing something challenging by choice; they travel often long distances to compete with themselves and prove they have what it takes. These activities are not for everyone, and I appreciate that. I'm counting on it, actually. Whoever my person is, they will appreciate the reason I've created this passion project. They will understand my reasons for using marathon racing during this discovery phase. It's wildly exciting to me, and I can't wait to see who I meet along the way!

Think we may vibe? Send me a DM. Maybe we can meet up!

* We took a little side trip to France to have chocolate for lunch one day!

XOXO,

T