From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Fri Jun 05 2009 - 07:52:19 EDT
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jun/05/1s5fitness225351-finish-sweet-if-not-swift/
Finish
sweet, if not swift San Carlos marathoner's 8-hour, 20-minute time a cause
for celebration By Don Norcross, Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. June 5, 2009
Aster Parker of San Carlos, who was born in the East African country of
Eritrea, has faced circumstances much more difficult than conquering 26.2
miles in the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. (Howard Lipin / Union-Tribune) -
Eight hours, 20 minutes and 49 seconds after Sunday's Rock 'n' Roll Marathon
began, San Carlos' Aster Parker walked beneath a tunnel of volunteers'
extended arms and across the timing mat at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.
Eight hours, 20 minutes. The typical work day. Eight “CSI” episodes. Nearly
17 “Seinfeld” reruns. Time for a double-header.
At his world-record marathon pace of 2 hours, 3 minutes, 59 seconds, Haile
Gebrselassie could lap the course four times in the duration it took Parker
to walk from Balboa Park to MCRD. But some accomplishments can't be coldly
measured against the clock.
“I'm not like an athletic person at all,” said Parker, a 51-year-old mother
of three teenage boys. “I didn't even know what 26.2 (miles) means.”
Parker is 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 168 pounds. She once weighed
nearly 200 pounds. She was born in the East African country of Eritrea. Her
mother died five years ago at 65 from diabetes complications, and Parker
mourned the loss for years.
“My mom died,” she told herself a year ago when she began exercising. “I
have to live.”
Four months ago she began training for the marathon, walking 3½ miles around
Lake Murray.
“I thought I was going to die,” she said.
As to why tackle the marathon, Parker said, “That's like the ultimate thing
you could do. All my kids are kind of raised. I've been giving, giving. This
was something for me.”
Race day dawned cool and overcast, ideal marathon conditions. There was
even a slight mist in the air. Parker's challenge, though, began early.
Traffic surrounding Balboa Park was congested. Her husband dropped her off
near airport parking. She walked a mile uphill to the start, arriving
precisely at the 6:30 a.m. send-off.
Her iPod charged, she walked to the rhythm of her favorite music, Dominican
bachata.
“It's fun. It's happy,” she said.
At 15 miles, the longest she walked in training, along the drab Morena
Boulevard stretch, she hit uncharted territory.
“By 15 miles, your body starts to tell you things,” Parker said. “ 'Hello.
I'm here.' Now the challenge begins.”
By 18 miles, her mood wasn't as light as the Latin music.
“I didn't want to listen to my iPod. I wanted to throw away my iPod,” she
said. “I didn't want to listen to anybody. I wanted to be by myself.”
Despite tightness settling into her right hip, she kept a recurring refrain
the final eight miles.
“Aster (pronounced Astaire), you are not a quitter,” she told herself. “I am
not going to quit. I don't want to teach my kids that quitting is OK.”
Parker has dealt with circumstances more difficult than walking 26.2 miles.
She said that at 18 she was imprisoned for three months in Ethiopia when she
refused to lead a political parade.
A Jehovah's Witness, Parker was told she would be killed during her
incarceration. Her father's life was threatened.
“There were physical beatings,” she said.
She sought religious asylum and escaped to Maryland when she was 19.
“People say (the marathon) is a mind thing,” she said. “For me, my mind does
what I tell it to do.”
Mental toughness?
Parker stopped at each aid station, drinking a cup of water and a cup of
electrolyte fluids. Yet she never used one of the portable bathrooms on the
course.
“How's the bathrooms?” she asked a walker.
“Dirty.”
“OK, that's it,” Parker said.
She ran for one stretch when she heard someone grunting in pain.
“I didn't want to hear their grunting,” she said. “I ran away from them.”
At Mile 24, she asked, “When's (Mile) 25?”
“You need to say, 'When's 26?' ” a woman replied.
“Lady,” Parker said, “I'm going to make it to 26, but first I have to make
it to 25.”
She was touched by the kindness of strangers. Like the Leukemia & Lymphoma
Society Team-In-Training walking coach from Tallahassee, Fla., who kept
telling her, “You're going to do it.”
The spectators who set up lawn chairs and cheered the participants. The
people who formed the human tunnel she walked beneath at the finish.
“Who are these beautiful people and where did they come from?” she said.
Out of 13,377 finishers, Parker placed 13,376th. A Florida woman came in 23
seconds later. Some 412 people who started the marathon did not finish.
Yet when Parker crossed the finish line and was handed her medal, she was
hit by the empty sensation that strikes many upon reaching a significant
goal.
“This is it?” she said.
She walked off the base, met her husband, came home and was greeted at the
door by a banner her boys made that read “Mom-athon.”
“I am very proud of her,” said Lemuel, Parker's 19-year-old son.
Now, she has set new goals. The woman who walked 26.2 miles wants to run a
5K. She “definitely” plans an encore performance next year at Rock 'n' Roll,
promising to run and walk the course.
Meanwhile, her brother has saddled her with a nickname:
“Twenty-six point two.”
------------------------------
Don Norcross: (619) 293-1803; don.norcross@uniontrib.com
*Don Norcross <http://mail.google.com/staff/don-norcross/>: (619) 293-1803;
*
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