Marsha Skrypuch <\/a>is an author. She\u2019s published 16 novels, and has received 47 awards and nominations for her work. She\u2019s also co-owner of an author\u2019s booking service, and runs an online critique group for writers. Oh, and she\u2019s one of the nicest people I\u2019ve ever met.<\/p>\nI have no idea how she does it all. I\u2019m in awe. I\u2019m also a bit irritated, because I sit here writing for eight hours a day every day (including most weekends), and I\u2019m nowhere near<\/i> that successful.<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s the kicker: Marsha also walks. She walks a lot<\/i>. While I\u2019m sitting here writing and getting flabby, she\u2019s<\/i> writing while she walks on a treadmill. Marsha walked 2012 kilometres in 2012 (that\u2019s 1250 miles\u2014over 47 marathons). And what was I doing while Marsha was walking 47 marathons? Sitting here. Getting flabby.<\/p>\n
On January 1, 2013, I officially snapped. Marsha\u2019s goal for 2013 was to walk 2013 kilometres. I was not <\/i>going to be left in the dust, again. I<\/i> was going to walk 2050 kilometres\u2014I<\/i> was going to out-walk Marsha Skrypuch!<\/p>\n
I stomped out to the barn and found a piece of plywood that I could use as a treadmill desk. I didn\u2019t have any way of securing it in place, but that was okay. I\u2019d be careful. I balanced the plywood across the treadmill\u2019s handles, put my laptop right in the middle of the board and hopped on.<\/p>\n
Now, Marsha walks at about 1.5 mph. So I set my treadmill for 3.5 mph. After all, if I was going to beat Marsha\u2019s 47 marathons, I was going to have to push myself. I started walking and writing. Well, to be honest, I started walking and making typos. I couldn\u2019t keep my fingers on the right keys. I couldn\u2019t scroll smoothly. I couldn\u2019t highlight accurately…I also couldn\u2019t catch my breath. I was going to have to slow down.<\/p>\n
I reached for the speed button, but caught my sleeve on the plywood desk, instead. As it slid off the treadmill\u2019s handles, I quickly grabbed my laptop. For a brief second, I was impressed\u2014I had pretty good reflexes! Then the plywood hit the treadmill belt, smashed into my shins, shot off the back of the treadmill and smacked into the wall (at 3.5 mph). Sadly, I followed. Holding the laptop over my head in a desperate attempt to save it, I crashed face-first onto the treadmill, shot off the back and smacked into the wall (at 3.5 mph).<\/p>\n
Marsha Skrypuch is going to walk 2013 kilometers in 2013. I walked 1.2 kilometers and bruised my ribs. Marsha, you win!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was January 1, 2013. But first, a little background: Marsha Skrypuch is an author. She\u2019s published 16 novels, and has received 47 awards and nominations for her work. She\u2019s also co-owner of an author\u2019s booking service, and runs an online critique group for writers. Oh, and she\u2019s one of the nicest people I\u2019ve ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funny-bits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/5"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brendakearns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}