Finish By Fifty

Hey Jake.  If I started to train for a marathon would you want to do it too?

I often get these harebrained ideas to do things and most of the time I can suppress the words from ejecting out of my mouth.  This was not one of those times.

My son and I are members of a gym.  For months now I have operated under the assumption that a gym membership was similar to paying protection to the Mafia.  If you paid it, nothing bad would happen.  I think Jake has been going with his friends every once in a while but I have been avoiding it like the organic food aisle at the supermarket.  I know it's there, but I don't have any reason to go check it out.  After my very well thought out and intentional mentioning of a marathon (yeah right) I decided to go back.  

Jake is a healthy kid and was up to the task.  In fact he remembered that our gym offered a body analysis test that we could take advantage of once a month.  We had never done it and I was operating under the assumption that we would have to make an appointment, shave our heads, run on a treadmill hooked up to wires and breathing into a giant tube that looked like a vacuum hose...then I realized I wasn't the Russian guy from the Rocky movies. Turns out we could do it right away, in about a minute, and we only had to take off our shoes.  (Will the sacrificing never end!)

Jake's printout reads like an Olympic athlete.  His stats are all in the normal to a little less than normal range.  The kicker was his percentage of body fat...8.  Not 18...8.  Well to be fair it was 8.3 but you get the idea.  I think I have had polo shirts with a higher percentage of fat after a messy trip to the rib joint in the next town.

My printout looked more like the daily recommended allowances sticker on the back of a Twinkie box.  In fact, to be more specific, it would have been the Twinkie that they described in the Ghostbuster's movie.  When I get the new results next month, and the fat content has dropped below that of a jelly donut, I may tell you what the original number was.  Prepare to leap back in horror!  That has to change.

So, armed with determination, a countdown clock, a book titled MARATHON, and a gym membership we are off on this journey to complete a marathon before I turn 50...an age that is closer than I think but far enough to manage.

Wish us luck!