Marilyn vs. Twiggy

I’ve recently been thinking about the issue of weight and what we perceive to be healthy. I've always been active so I've never really had to think about it before. Now that I've toned down the running for the time being, I started thinking more about it as I saw a pound or two come back that had consequently fallen off during marathon training. What I’ve realized is that we, as American women, are pulled so far in each direction that it’s no wonder that a majority have no idea how to be a healthy woman.

Obesity is considered to be one of the more serious public health issues of this century, and one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide. Yet why do we seem oblivious to the detrimental effects of being overweight or obese? Honestly, I don’t think we’re oblivious. I think we’re in denial.

In the mid 20^th century we saw a huge shift in what was considered to be beautiful. Women the size and shape of Marilyn Monroe thrived in the 1950’s. She’s still considered to be one of the most prominent sex symbols of all time. Then the 1960’s rolled around and came Twiggy, one of the world’s first supermodels. Let’s make a comparison of their measurements.

Marilyn:

Height – 5 feet, 5 ½ inches

Weight – 118-140 pounds

Bust – 36 inches

Waist – 23 inches

Hips – 37 inches

Twiggy:

Height – 5 feet, 6 inches

Weight – 110- pounds

Bust – 31 inches

Waist – 23 inches

Hips – 32 inches

Well, I see some similarities. Ms. Monroe and Ms. Twiggy were of similar height and have similar waist sizes. But, look at their bust and hips. What? There’s a 5-inch difference in each of those areas. That’s pretty big. This makes Marilyn a distinct hourglass and Twiggy a ruler. The biggest difference was in their basic shape and we started valuing the ruler over the hourglass.

Now I don’t know why this change happened but, it did and the movement continued to grow. As we moved into the latter part of the century, the prominence of stick thin women grew. It’s still prevalent in the first eleven years of this century.

The effects of this trend are pretty noticeable. Women and young girls started yearning to be like these cover girls. Incidences of eating disorders grew and the female population became discontent with their bodies.

Now, we’re facing pretty terrifying obesity rates and it makes me wonder how this happened. If women want so much to look like today’s models, why is obesity increasing? Well, I think there are countless factors at play but I feel like one of them is that women don't know where to look for help and have come to a point of rebellion. They know that they can’t look like models and so they’ve rebelled. They know that excessive dieting was unsuccessful (and quite frankly, not fun) so they went in the opposite direction. We started teaching our girls to love themselves for who they are and not teach them who they could be. We led our girls down a path of future health problems such as type II diabetes, joint problems and hypertension in the name of promoting self esteem.

The problem I see here is that there is no medium. Women strive for one extreme or the other. They limit calories by day then end up binging by night. They spend hours at the gym for a week, then when they don't immediately resemble a runway model, they don't return for months.

What is a woman to do with no positive healthy role model to look to? Yes, grown women need role models too. All they want is guidance. Someone to show them what to do, to tell them how they should be career women, girlfriends mothers, wives, partners, caretakers, and still feel like Wonder Woman.

 What women fail to understand is that it isn’t about the shape and size of the body, it’s about the lifestyle chosen. Women need to learn the motivation behind a healthy lifestyle. Yes, the desire to look good will always be present. We are human after all. But, if women choose a healthy, balanced lifestyle, they will find that they will have a healthy and balanced body. When that balance is realized, I think we’ll finally be able to peg down our role models. We'll start becoming our own role models.

26.2 Completed!

Well, it's been over a week since the marathon and I'm finally getting it together enough to write about it. Within a couple of hours of finishing, I was in a vehicle headed for South Dakota. The week following was a whirlwind of spending time with my new nephew and sister, cooking a ton of food for them, going shopping and eating. Thus, there was not a lot of time for blogging. I mean, who wouldn't want to hang out with this guy? He's all about the Gophers too, just like his aunt. :)

I got a lot of Bryce-a-Roni time and  you can see why blogging was set aside for the time being. But, now that I'm home, I'll give you a run down on how the big day went.

Erich's and my parents arrived on Saturday morning. Erich and his family went shopping at the Albertville outlets while my parents and I went shopping for beer-making supplies and wine. We have some pretty good priorities. The only problem was that I didn't want to take part in the included wine tasting due to the marathon being on the next day. Oh well. Next time.

For dinner we met up with much of the Run to Stop MS team at Buca Di Beppo for a pre-race meal. If you're unfamiliar with Buca, it's a chain Italian restaurant that serves huge portions family-style. While I really wanted to pig out, I didn't really want to be extra heavy and miserable for the race the next day. The strategy seemed to work.

Sunday morning I woke at the ripe old time of 6 a.m. Jenna was picking up Erich and I at 6:30 so we could meet our parents at my office by 6:45. The rest of the team also met there and we prepped for the race and took a team photo. I don't have a copy of said photo because it's on my mom's camera and she hasn't gotten it up on Facebook yet. I'll share all of the photos we have once my mom posts them on Facebook. After the photo we walked over to the Metrodome to get ready for the starting gun.

The gun officially went off at 8 a.m. I was in the last corral with Michelle so we didn't cross the start line until well after that. But, by 8:10, we were off. Right away it was obvious this race would be different from any other I'd ever done. Not only would it be considerably longer but there was an intense energy surrounding the whole event. From the moment we left, there were complete strangers cheering on every runner. Many people held signs for their family and friends and all of them clapped and yelled as we went by. This was true for the entire race. 26.2 miles of spectator-lined streets. The energy also came from starting a race in downtown. Running through towering buildings and stopping traffic (while they all honked for us) was empowering. Too bad we were out of downtown by mile one. But, the fun was just beginning.

We made our way into Uptown Minneapolis via Lake of the Isles and around Lake Calhoun. Our path took us by the exact spot where Michelle's car was broken into, as well as the lakes where I completed many training runs. After missing my family at mile 3 (they got held up, we ran too fast and were gone before they could meet us) we zipped around Lake Harriet and met up with them at mile 7. By this point I was quite warm and had to shed the gloves I was wearing along with the free arm warmers I received from the marathon. Thankfully I saw them at mile 7 and was able to toss them off at that point.

On the south end of Lake Harriet, we turned and meandered onto Minnehaha Parkway. During this segment I saw my family once, a couple of great Bike MS volunteers and participants and two good friends from high school, who were there to watch another friend from high school attempt to qualify for Boston. She did by the way. Go Hannah! I lost Michelle around mile 11. She was going too fast for my liking so I let her go on ahead. I faced the last 15 miles alone. At this point I realized how great it was to see friendly faces along the course. Don't get me wrong, it feels pretty good to have complete strangers cheering for you, but nothing beats having someone call out your name and yell.

We hit the halfway point on the north/northeast side of Lake Nokomis, before continuing on Minnehaha Parkway to Minnehaha Park. After arriving in the park I was again in familiar territory. This area was where I started many training runs and where Michelle and I started and completed our first run together when we ran 13 miles. I arrived at mile 16 just north of the park and started scanning the street ahead for the MS Cheer Zone. About the time I spotted it I heard my name called out and my coworker, Anna, snapped this photo:

It's not a great picture because I stole it from Anna's Facebook page. But, it does a good job of summing up how I felt about seeing people I know on the route. I was pretty happy. Notice the people behind me who were beginning to take a walking break at this time. Other than going through the water/Powerade stations, I hadn't walked yet. I saw co-workers and volunteers waving signs and ringing cowbells. I saw some volunteers who are very near and dear to me and some of whom I was running for. That was a lovely boost to have when looking at 10 more miles to go. shortly thereafter I saw the family again, this time with the addition of Jenna's brother and his beagle, Fila. I took in some energy and a half a banana in hopes I'd get through to mile 20.

Well, that's about as far as I got before the pain really set in. Ouch. At mile 20 it starts getting rough in any marathon (or so I hear) but this is where the Twin Cities Marathon takes an uphill turn. Yep, as if having to struggle through the last 6 miles isn't hard enough, we had to go uphill. That's the point where if you're not careful, you start to cramp. And, I did a little. I found that an incline really made my calves get tight, so I eased up and walked partway up the hills. I traded off between walking and running during the 2-mile incline. I ran until my calves started feeling tight, then walked a bit. I followed this method for a good amount of the next 4 miles then tried to run even more for the last 2.

Summit Avenue encompasses that killer uphill as well as most of the remainder of the race. Summit has some of the most incredible houses in the area. They're all historic and beautiful. Summit Avenue is home to the governor's mansion as well as the James J. Hill house, which is the house of a railroad tycoon from the 1800's. It's huge, see!

It also marks about a 1/2 mile left in the race. By the time I passed the James J. Hill house I'd made a friend. He was running for the World Vision team and gave a huge proclamation at mile 25 that we only had 1 mile left. In reality it was 1.2 but I tended to forget about the .2 at the end. Thus began our mile-long friendship. We ran and walked a little through the last 1.2 miles, and cheered each other on to the end. We picked up another guy at about 25.5 and the three of us ran into the finish line. It was all downhill from there and was AWESOME. There are people literally everywhere. They are thick on the streets and surrounding the finish area. Everyone is cheering, there is music playing, and as you cross the finish line, an announcer calls out your name.

Immediately after finishing, volunteers are there placing medals around everyone's necks, then you're funneled into an area with food, food, glorious food. I hadn't realized it but I was starving. Turns out 5 hours of Powerade and Clif Shot Blocks aren't really enough to keep you full. There was so much to snack on, I couldn't carry it all. The two things that tasted the best were the Pearson's Salted Nut Roll and an ice cold chocolate milk. Now I know why all of our Bike MS participants freak out about the Salted Nut Rolls after a long ride.

I grabbed my shirt and made my way to my family who was waiting at the MS Society's meeting tent. After sitting for a while and getting off my feet for the first time in almost 6 hours, I decided to take a trip to the bathroom. Out of toilet paper! Now, I understand that there are 11,000 people competing plus spectators but let's make sure the bathrooms are stocked full of TP okay? I plan events too. We literally drive around restocking the porta potties, or we assign volunteers to it. It's not that hard folks. Now, that was really my only complaint about the event logistics.

After my less-than-successful trip to the porta potty, we headed home. Erich had to get to work and my parents and I had to head to Sioux Falls. My overall time was 5:12: 36. Not really great, but I finished. Michelle ended up slowing down quite a bit too and finishing in around 5:06. We did it!

I realized that I may have started out a little too fast in the beginning. This may have contributed to my demise around mile 20. Because I know where I can tweak things and make it better, I think I might have to do another in the future. Now, I'm not sure when it will be, but I'm about 90% certain it will happen again. I know I can do much better than that.

For now, I'm enjoying being able to just say no to going for a run if I don't feel like it. I do like that I can just run when I want and not have to worry about mileage and time. For now, I'm going to enjoy that. Until I take on my next adventure.

Thanks to all of you who supported me though words of encouragement, donations, and coming out on race day. You know who you are and how much that meant to me. It's great to know I have a full network of support behind me, no matter what crazy shenanegans in which I decide to partake.