Why I Look Good In Purple

For the past few weeks, I have been walking around town sporting a nice, new purple running jacket.  And I have received my share of grief for it.

Wearing purple in Forest Grove, especially when one works at Pacific University (where our colors are red and black), is like someone wearing a bright yellow shirt in Corvallis.  For the uneducated, Pacific’s primary rival in athletics is Linfield College.  Their colors are purple and red.

Our golf coach nearly called me a traitor, seeing the jacket on the back of my chair.  The story behind the jacket elicited simply two words.

“You’re weird.”

But this jacket has nothing to do with the right or wrong colors, the right or wrong school or whether I am truly weird.  It is about goals achieved, dreams to come and the hard work it will take to get there.

At the beginning of 2013, I accepted the challenge of the Oregon Road Runners Club’s “1,200 Club” program.  A new offering by the club, it challenged members to run 1,200 miles during the calendar year.  This translates to 100 miles per month, or roughly 22 miles per week over 52 weeks.  That’s the same as driving from Portland to Rapid City, S.D.

Running 1,200 miles is a lofty goal to be certain.  Over the first two months, I managed to just meet the required 100 miles to keep pace.  But by the end of February, some amazing things started to happen that proved to be life enhancing.

For starters, the 1,200 Club challenge re-ignited my love for running.  I have always been an avid runner, but had been in a lull after completing my first marathon in 2010.  Accepting the challenge and putting the miles in reminded me of why I love it.  The stress release, the oneness with nature, the focus of being in tune with one’s body.

That reminder encouraged me to drop extra weight that I have carried for so long.  I joined a Weight Watchers group in February and since I have dropped 20 pounds and plan to lose more.  Conventional wisdom says you gain, on average, two seconds per mile for every pound lost.  For a runner, that is like finding a gear you had forgotten existed.

I found that gear over the course of the year, dropping 10 minutes off of my half-marathon personal best at the Helvetia Half Marathon in June and running under 42 minutes in a pair of 10-kilometer races over the summer.

The challenge also made me dust off of my longtime bucket list goals: To qualify for the Boston Marathon.  The bombings that took place at the marathon finish line on Apr. 15, 2013, only helped resolve that goal of sometime soon toeing the start line in Hopkington, Mass., to run that fabled route to Boylston Street.  I took a major step towards that goal by finishing the 2013 Portland Marathon in 3 hours, 23 minutes, a 35-minute improvement over my 2010 marathon.  It is just 13 minutes off the Boston qualifying time for my age group.

That Portland Marathon, that dedicated training, that improvement would never have happened without the 1,200 Club challenge.  And because of that I wear my purple jacket.  Proudly.

As I work my way through an injury that has kept me sidelined for over two months, that purple jacket is reminding me of why I need to keep my focus.  It’s a reminder to myself of the hard work already banked and the hard work I still need to do to make my goals realities.

So I will wear that purple jacket, looking down every so often at the stitching proclaiming me a 1,200 Club member, thinking proudly of the journey experienced and many miles I will still travel on my two feet.

Purple is the color of goals achieved, dreams to come and the hard work it will take to get there.  I’ll see you on the roads.

This story is scheduled to appear in the May 2014 edition of the ORRC's "Oregon Distance Runner" magazine.