Elizabeth and Mark, New York, NY
Now that I'm warmed up ...
Like any good Type A, hyper-motivated first child, I had the first half all figured out ... study hard, get into a good college, study harder, go to grad school, enter chosen profession, pay my dues, and for good measure throw the "four year plan" on top: get married, four years later first kid, four years later second kid. Family life along the way included long stretches of managed chaos well familiar to all parents, followed by periods of relative calm. And JUST when we'd finally reached that "sweet spot" in parenting when the kids can pour their own juice, pull their own luggage and engage in intelligent conversation at the dinner table, when we no longer had to scramble for a babysitter during holiday party season, and kid #1 could drive kid #2 to tennis practice ... I realized it was ALL about to change.
It was time to take stock: (1) kid #1 on the verge of college, kid #2 finishing out junior high (translation: closing in on half an empty nest), (2) been so busy raising said family and pursuing careers that we slowly forgot the whole eat well and exercise thing (oops) to the detriment of our waistlines and overall health, (3) with the passing of my father, I remembered that no part of life should be taken for granted.
I then came to the startlingly obvious realization that life is finite and if I want to embrace life and live it actively and well, then I'd better get to the business of doing it now.
And so, after a 44 year warm up, it was time to get moving. One year, three 10ks, and four half marathons into it and I am starting to get my groove back and have my sights firmly on the New York City Marathon in the fall. It's time to go big ... to run, to travel, to play, to dine, to love. Today. Everyday.
Welcome to my midlife run ...
E.-
Elizabeth Ewens is a Northern California-based attorney and mother of two teenagers. She’s also a runner, wife, bonsai caretaker, and coffee aficionado, and proudly finished her first NYC Marathon in 2015 and Chicago Marathon in 2016. Her writing has been published by Women's Running, Scary Mommy, and Cosmopolitan. You can follower her on Twitter @elizabeth_ewens or on Instagram @eewens.