my friend, rocks
Friday, July 24, 2009 at 2:52PM 
Michele conquered Half Dome, but apparently drew the line at getting rained on.This is Michele. She and I have been best friends since we were 13; we even went to college together and joined the same sorority. We're still close, despite that she lives in California, and I live in New York, and our crazy lives are such that we barely get to talk to each other, except when we schedule a phone conversation into our mutual calendars.
But when she called (unscheduled!) in May, got my answering machine, and mentioned offhandedly that she'd just returned from climbing Half Dome, I was flabbergasted. (I wrote in an e-mail, "HALF DOME??????? Call me when you get out of traction!") And sure enough, when we finally spoke, she said that for her birthday in May, she and some friends had climbed this imposing granite behemoth in Yosemite National Park. That's 4,800 feet and an arduous 9 1/2-hour hike at high altitude, plus some serious dizzying heights. And she was decidedly not in traction afterward.
I was shocked. Then I was proud. You would be both, too, if you knew Michele.
My dear friend is the last person I would have thought would become Super Athlete Woman. In college, she was the girl who stayed behind with a cocktail and a cigarette while I went off to my perky job teaching aerobics at the local YMCA. A former child ballerina, Michele became exer-phobic, I think, after she blew out her knee in ballet. Through her teen years, and into her marriage and motherhood, she struggled with her weight, cycled through various diets, and had pretty much resigned herself to being somebody who just wasn't in the kind of shape she wished she was in. It didn't help that she is the busiest woman I know, with endless work and social and parenting obligations.
Then, a few years after her first child, she started walking. Just a little at first, but she did it regularly, even though she barely had time in her life for anything. This was impressive enough. Then, after her second child was born, having not lost all the weight from her first pregnancy despite the walking, she started jogging. Then running. Then running 10K races. And, a decade later, Half Dome.
When I asked her what it was like, she said the hike was hard, but she was most daunted by the very last bit, when you have to climb a lot of granite steps carved into the mountain very high up. "The stairs are steep, there's no railing, and there's nothing below you," she says. That's when she didn't think she could go any farther. "I was in that place where I thought, 'I can't go up, and I can't go down, and I'm going to die here.' It was terrifying."
And yet, she made it. (And, by the way, look at her fit, fabulous self.)
Two days ago I got an e-mail from Michele: Hey, how's it going, oh, by the way, I'm running the San Francisco Marathon on Sunday. Again, I'm amazed and impressed. I want to wish her the best of luck and tell her I know, just know, that she will prevail—even though she's a little worried that she won't reach her goal. She says she's confident she can finish the race, but she doesn't want to walk any of it. She wants to run the whole thing.
If anyone has any words of encouragement for my amazing friend, especially any of you marathoners, please leave them below so she can read them.
And from me:
GO MICHELE!!! And call me after you run across the finish line.
*Update: Michele finished the race. Her time was longer than she'd hoped but she ran the whole way. "Now everything from the waist down is so sore, I can't even walk!" she told me on Monday. "I'm not sure if it was the cold, the hills, the jostling and dodging other runners, but it is what it is, and I feel great I finished and that I ran it all, and that I didn't get sick and have to be carried off by the medics (which I saw a lot of)."
I call that a victory.
friends
Reader Comments (9)
I am so jazzed for you, Michele! Half Dome, the SF Marathon...amazing feats indeed! Best wishes for an enjoyable, injury free run tomorrow! I'll be watching for you each time the camera pans the stream of feet and faces! Watch for those news cameras and shoot us those cute dimples and pearly whites! Thanks to Lauren for this opportunity, because any time to wish you well and luck is a gift! By the way, your most impressive trophy to date involves more of an intellectual triumph, polished by the heart - - and that is the way you have parented two of the sweetest, most thoughtful, positive thinking young women I know! Good luck tomorrow !
Michele! Look at you go girl! You look great and you need to get on Facebook -- I held out for a long time and glad I gave in. Amazing accomplishments! We will cheer you on Sunday.
You are so awesome, Michele~ I'm very proud of you and all that you have accomplished! Maybe I should get off my duff and get going, too!
Love you! Jenny
Lauren, what a great friend you are! And, Michele...I love you; I'm so proud of you; and I have so very much respect for you! What a source of inspiration you are!
All my love,
Mom
Michele is the buffest woman I know! You inspire me. Now I've just got to find my tennis shoes.
MICHELE!! Here you go, inspiring me (the non-runner) once again...you are truly incredible. Everyone said it right--Sheila Anne, a loud BINGO to you--and I will TOTALLY be cheering you on. I know you can do it!! Even if you have to walk a mile or two, it will be a triumph! --
Sometime I would love to hear about your training...will email you privately about this. Love, cheers, & congrats in advance! Lauren, you are the best. xox to you both :-)
michele!! well the benefits of facebook connections - great picture! what a great accomplishment and good for you.. i am already exhausted just thinking about it! think i better take a rest.....congratulations!
Wow Michele, way to go!
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