It's Happening

The past three days have been incredible.  27 of our closest family and friends have taken over Myrtle Beach's Palms Resort hotel. Three swimming pools that meet up to the sand and the Atlantic Ocean is my view from our penthouse balcony. Waking up to the sound of waves and watching the sun rest on the clouds both am/pm is the prettiest thing around.

We got here on Saturday. Instead of RUNNING THREE MILES with my running family at 8am, I was driving through Virginia with the three most important people in my life. Even though I was headed to my beautiful vacation destination,  I was sad that I was missing out on this humongous milestone with my NoBo friends. I wish that somehow I could have teleported myself to Fleet Feet for just an hour and then return to the passenger seat of my minivan without notice.

A highlight of the morning was passing by Fleet Feet Roanoke. A slight part of me felt "home" as we waited for the light to change green at the intersection outside the store. I wondered if the NoBo Roanoke team was off on their workout, since it was around 830am.

Around 9am, I logged on Facebook to see how the workout went. Tons of friends shared their pride and achievements of the mornings' 3 Mile Run with no walking. I was so proud of them. Happy that THEY DID IT, sad that I missed it. Regardless, I somehow felt connected to them through their posts and made sure to send congratulatory comments their way!

When we finally arrived to our hotel and got settled, I decided that it was my turn to follow suit. I knew that if I was going to get the chance to hit my 3-mile milestone, then I had to go right then.

I laced up my brand new Brooks Adrenaline sneakers, strapped on my hand held water bottle and left the penthouse view for the strip of hotels. My watch was ready and my run was mapped out to 47th Street. 1.5 miles there and back.

IT WAS HOT! About 78 degrees in the 4pm South Carolina Sun made this run even more of a challenge.  I wanted to turn back after 2 minutes and put this workout off until the morning. After 5 minutes my knees were screaming and I already had a layer of sweat across my face. What the heck was I thinking?? 3 miles. No walking. Sure.............

It was easy to doubt myself and come up with every excuse in the book.  But then I thought about my NoBo friends, mentors and Coaches. I thought about how this is what I wanted when I first signed up. I wanted to feel the pain, push through it and NOT GIVE UP even if I hated every single minute of it. I knew the end was going to be monumental. And somehow I could not give in.  Besides, by giving my brain the time to run through all of the negative things,  I was already a half a mile down, and my body had started to get into the motion. 

IT'S HAPPENING. Like a light came on or something. It had just clicked that I was going to succeed. Perfect timing!! I was trained for this step in the workout plan, and the belief of "trusting the program" was staring me in the face.

The hotel in the distance as I was about to finish made me tear up. I checked my watch and realized with the distance I had left to go, could put me at a 5k. The pride I had inside that I could do this gave my over tired self the craziest feeling. IT'S HAPPENING... and I want to remember this feeling every time I want to quit and walk or turn back. 

Today I was able to feel it again. My sister Laura came with me this morning and we put another 5K in the books. I even shaved off about 2 1/2 minutes from Saturday's time, plus our third mile was our fastest! It was great running with her. I loved it.

I'm also happy that I ran alone the first time. I'm glad I could have that "growing inside experience" that pushed me through to the end and it was all on my own.  It made today's run feel not as challenging, even though I felt the same pain as before.  And again, the accomplished feeling afterwards was the best reward! 

IT'S HAPPENING... and I wouldn't change a thing.