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| Zoe Romano |
I recently watched Zoe Romano`s Ted Talk, where she
discussed running the Tour de France. On May 18, 2013 she began this run and
with this became the first person to ever run the full 3,500 kilometers (2,200
mi). Through sponsorship, donations, and community engagement, Zoe
used this run to raise funds for World Pediatric Project (WPP). Zoe raised just under $169 000.
Zoe averaged running thirty miles a day for ten weeks, and ran the last ninety
miles in one stint, which is simply astounding. Although some of her talk was
about the hardships and successes of this achievement, she touched on actually
pitching her run to a publishing company; Zoe wanted to document her success story
and make a memoir out of it. Unfortunately for me, because I simply love
memoirs and movies that have to do with extreme activities, her book idea was
turned down. Zoe explained that it had to do with her reason behind taking on
such an extreme task of running over two thousand miles. In her own words, she
took on this goal simply because she wanted to see if she could do it. She didn't just want to dream, she wanted to dream big and encourage other people
do to the same.
It seemed as though
the publishing company needed more of a story. They needed her to take on such
an overwhelmingly intense ambition essentially as a means to fix herself. They eluded
that she should have not only been running for the sake of something, but
perhaps running from something. As
such other memoirs like Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, the other book about hiking the
Pacific Crest Trail: A Girl in the Woods or even the Julie & Julia cooking memoir,
all of these women were each attempting such impossible tasks as a way to
cleanse their past and transform themselves into newer, better women.
After completing two Half Marathons and fearfully signing up
for my first Full Marathon in the fall, this Ted Talk was something that caught
my interest. My last Half Marathon was an accomplishment I am very proud of. For the first time I trained, quite diligently,
on my own and I had learned that my hardest task was not so much the average thirteen
kilometer runs, but I had to teach myself to actually rest on my rest days and opted
out on running when I was injured, which was a very difficult thing to do. So,
for me, running 13.1 miles and taking on the ambitious task of training for and
then running 26.2 miles is an achievement in its own right. The fact that Zoe`s
insight of running the Tour de France simply isn't enough of a success story
really pisses me off. The desire to run that distance doesn't need to be about putting
oneself back together, the reason doesn't have to come from the depths of a personal
tragedy. 
Don`t get me wrong, I love those train wreck memoirs where a
female writer hits rock bottom and eventually transitions into a strong, success
woman in her own right. I love that women are opting to put themselves back
together with extreme goals rather than fixing themselves with the prospect of
a male companion. Elizabeth Gilbert is a writer I very much look up to and can
relate to. Cheryl Strayed has helped me create my own desires of solo,
long-term hiking, which I will do before I`m 30. However, the desire to achieve
the unthinkable doesn't have to come from a serendipitous life event.
Running doesn’t stem from hopes of transforming into a
better me; I`m happy with who I am. That`s not why I run and I know that`s not
why my girlfriends run. I run because it makes me happy. I run because it makes
my ass look nice. I run because I love Hawkins Cheesees and when I complete a
long run, I shamelessly eat two bags of them back to back. I run because I`m addicted to that runner`s
high and those endorphin's make me so damn content with my life. I run because
it`s a part of me.
In all honesty, when
I mentioned that I was going to run yet another half marathon in the summer, a
strong and fearless woman in her own right, Celia, said that I should go all
the way and run a full marathon. I should run it because I could do it. And I
thought to myself, that shit yeah, I can do that. I will do it. And I`m running
my full marathon on October 9th in Kelowna, BC. I`m running it not
because I`m trying to fix myself or that I`m running from something. I`m
running 42 kilometers with a goal of four hours because I want to see if I can
do it.
Kindly,
A girl who just want to run in her own right.
They're working on a film about Zoe's Tour de France run. Check out the details here.
