Heckedy Peg

I don't know how many of you are familiar with this children's story, but it was one of my favorites growing up. In this story, an old woman named Heckedy Peg comes to a house full of children whose mother has left for the day to go into town for groceries. Heckedy Peg is a mean, scary old woman. She knocks on the door saying, "I'm Heckedy Peg, I've lost my leg, please let me in." The children let her in and she kidnaps them. When the mother comes home she must set out to rescue her children but... I'll let you go read the ending. Like I said, it's one of my favorites.

Heckedy Peg is really an atrocious character, but lately I've felt that I can sympathize or relate to her. Not because I want to kidnap children...seriously, I really don't...but because she didn't have a leg. Now, I have both of my legs so you still might be wondering why I feel a sort of affiliation with Heckedy Peg. Let me see if I can explain.

Yesterday I accomplished another one of my summer goals. I ran in a half marathon. (check) And I honestly had fun doing it. It was in a canyon in Springville, Utah, and was one of the prettiest settings I could have asked for. It was early in the morning (I woke up and 4:30) and the canyon was shaded and green and cool. Like I said, I was honestly having a fun time for those first 9 miles. I was also surprised to see my dad along the road. I hadn't thought that my family would be able to come down, but as I rounded one of the bends there he was, cheering me on. I was confused at first but then started laughing and ran over to say hello. Yeah I lost a few seconds on my time but seeing him there was worth it.

The last few miles were tougher (blisters starting popping up at mile 9) but fortunately people who run are pretty nice. I got some extra energy from strangers cheering me on, fellow runners setting a good pace, an old man in the neighborhood who had a mist sprayer out for us to run under, and always my dad off in the distance taking super attractive pictures and what I'm sure are pretty funny videos as well.

I couldn't tell if Dad was taking a picture or a video. Plus a bug probably just  flew up my nose. That tended to happen quite frequently.

I came up on that last 0.1 miles and saw the finish line with tons of people around when I heard my name being yelled. Rebecca and Wes were there along with my dad and Rebecca was yelling my name. "Rachel! Rachel! Run faster! Push it! Push it!" I attempted to run a little bit faster but really just started laughing. Laughing because it had been a good run, the finish line was right there, I knew I looked hilarious trying to push my body to go faster, and because I was happy to see familiar faces cheering me on. Yes, I crossed the finish line smiling. (Ok, that was cheesy)

Yep...me trying to go faster. Rebecca yelling at me to push it. A shirtless man finding amusement at the whole situation.

Check out that knee brace. What up?

I told you I was laughing. Again, shirtless man finds amusement.

Thanks to Wes for taking pictures

This experience and the recovery that came along with it have made me extremely glad for the things I can do.  Yeah, I can run 13.1 miles in about 2 hours. I can walk up and down stairs (something that's been a little bit harder to do as I try to recover) I can use my sweet medal to open beer bottles...err...soda bottles. I can do a lot of things because of my biped status.

So Heckedy Peg, I'm sorry that you lost your leg. I really, truly am. But I am so grateful for my legs, my feet, knee braces, water, Gatorade, bags of frozen vegetables to ice my legs with, socks, shoes, hair elastics, the absence of blisters, alarm clocks, cold baths, encouragement, family, and...my legs.