Weddingbee

Well, OK, I wouldn’t bike 500 miles just yet. But after completing last weekend’s 2-day, 204-mile Seattle to Portland ride with Mr. Cherry Pie, it seems appropriate to the tweak lyrics to The Proclaimer’s “500 Miles” a little bit.

… I would bike 100 miles
And I would bike 100 more
Just to be the girl who biked 200 miles
To fall down at your door…

Some of you asked how our ride went. Well, we finished, and in good time, but I wouldn’t say we finished “strong.” The heat was absolutely oppressive on the second day, over 90 degrees (not counting the reflective heat of the pavement) with little shade.

Here we are at the halfway point, Centralia, WA, looking good and enjoying some orange Creamsicles, mmm:

Here we are at lunch on the second day, looking considerably less energetic:

What was it like? Long, scenic, and really, really warm. The heat honestly made the ride much more difficult than it otherwise would have been. Imagine how drained a really hot day can make you feel, and then imagine biking 100 miles anyway. Yeaaahhhhh.

But I did make a music video for you anyway. Doesn’t it LOOK nice?

Mr. CP is a gracious and wonderful training partner. He rode with me when I decided that the speed racers in the rest of our group were going too fast for me to sustain a paceline at 22 miles per hour. In fact, Mr. CP towed me most of the way, which means that he rode in front and I rode in his draft…an energy savings of approximately 30 percent.This is by no means the first event we’ve trained for and completed together. Check out our resume…

Us at the finish line of the 2006 Portland Marathon (our first!):

Us at the finish line of the 2007 Eugene Marathon (our last!):

We’ve run countless 5k races, but don’t have many commemorative photos. Nothing quite compares after running (and hallucinating through) 26.2 loooong miles.

And, of course we’ve done a lot of backpacking with friends…

And alone…

Hiking, and climbing…

I’m not sharing this to brag, though I am proud of what we’ve accomplished. I’m sharing so you can get a sense of what these activities mean to us.

This wasn’t always our idea of fun. The first time we visited Glacier National Park in 2000, I had just graduated high school. Though I’d done some basic team sports, I’d always skipped out of the gym class requirement and focused more on my forte: computers. As a result, I was bordering on overweight and, at the least, I was terribly out of shape. I had never, in my life, run a mile without stopping.

That first year in Glacier kicked my butt. I came prepared to climb a mountain and left sorely defeated.

My first year in college, I started watching what I ate and going to the gym regularly. To be honest, I was a little obsessive about it, to the point of possible compulsion. I lost a lot of weight but I still hadn’t done much (besides hiking) outside of the gym.

My senior year of college in 2004, after a year overseas, I asked myself, “what else can I do that scares me?” and decided to start running with a coached class via the University Fitness Center. That was the first time I ran a mile without stopping. Then two, then three, then five, then ten. And the rest is history…

I guess I’m saying that if I can do it, anyone can. Not (just) to lose weight. Not (just) to be healthy. Not (just) to say you did. There’s another, hidden benefit to all this, one that relates directly to relationships and even to wedding planning.

When you’re out there, running, biking, camping, hiking, whatever…you’re not here. Not sitting in front of your computer, thinking about what kind of forks to order for your wedding guests. Not making a grocery list or paying bills. Not watching TV or snapping at each other.

You’re out there, in your body, in the world, and it’s a wonderful escape. Besides getting a nice endorphin high, you get a chance to distance yourself from everything that’s weighing you down. You can really free yourself NOT to think about the things clouding your mind, or you may find yourself thinking about them in an entirely different perspective.

Finally, if you’re a stress cadet, as we all have a tendency to be in the middle of such a big project, you might find that you, and your partner, suddenly become much more likable people!

And that, my friends, is what love is all about.

What are you doing to relieve stress these days?

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