Friday, May 3, 2013

Day before one of my biggest life events...

It is the day before the half marathon...!

The big day is just around the corner and I couldn't be more excited. I am nervous yes and a bit of a basket case. (Anyone who REALLY knows me knows that that is a normal thing :P) 7 months. 7 months of training, tears, amazement and unfortunately some kneeling before the porcelain. It has been one of the best adventures that I have been on. I feel like I really found myself through all of this.

I couldn't have made it through all this training w/o my training partner! My friend Jamie is always in for whatever adventure is up for conversation. I asked if she would like to run a half marathon... she said "okay". It started from there. This will be her first race as well and has worked so hard to get to this day. I think our friendship has grown through this adventure of ours and I couldn't be more proud of her.

 We ran together once a week for 7 months. If we couldn't run together, then we made sure to text each other once we were done. We kept each other accountable and discussed different ways of training. Our motto has been "If it seems legit...". We had no training plan and just went for it. Again, anyone who really knows me knows that I love google.com and will research everything that I change in my lifestyle. We got a lot of tips from websites, articles and just the people around us.

One big thing that I learned from Jamie was... chill out. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do the best and do it well. If I had a bad run, I was apologizing all the time and upset that I didn't do better. She taught me how to "run for fun". Just go out, run and have a good time. I am finally learning that after 7 months w/ training. Running is fun to me, it is a stress relieve and I can't imagine a time where I didn't do it.

Did I mention that we always make our runs an experience? Between dancing at the stoplights, mother nature's treadmill, running w/ glow sticks and tripping on the sidewalk... I definitely have some memories from our runs. All I have to say is... thank goodness I was running w/ a nurse!

So here I am. I am about to accomplish one of the biggest goals I have set for myself. It is an overwhelming thought.

I have received so many phone calls and messages from old friends, new friends, co-workers and family. Everyone has been so supportive and amazing. It brings tears to my eyes to know how great the people I surround myself with are. The ones that wish they could be there... they have no idea how much that means to me to know that they wanted to and just even had the thought. The ones that will be there... I can't wait to see them all when I cross the finish line. This journey that I am on has showed me how damn lucky I am to have these people in my life.

Thank you to the friends and family that have been there giving advice, giving encouragement, cheering me on and picking me up when I was down. You mean the world to me and there is no way I could ever repay what you have given me.

**Best of luck when running your half marathon Jamie, Justin, Cindy and my Uncle John. I could not ask for better people to have this adventure with.

1 comment:

  1. Good luck!!!!

    What an amazing thing to have such a good running buddy :-)

    ReplyDelete