About Me...

About Inspirations....

As many of you may know... I am not the most positive or upbeat person... I don't get emotional very often, and when I do, I try my damnedest not to show it...

Well I have to tell you this story of something that brought me to tears... in public!

I had my race Sunday... The Royal Victoria Marathon 8K Road Race... and man, was I NOT feeling it... I felt nauseous when I woke up, I didn't want to get out of bed, I didn't want to walk to the start line... I was just not feeling it...

But.. I mustered up the motivation... I got dressed and walked my butt over to the start line...

I ran... but I still wasn't feeling it. The 1km mark came, and I was behind the pace I needed to be at to reach my goal... the 2km mark came and I'd made up some time... the 3km mark came and the 'elite' athletes (including an Olympic multi-medalist) were passing me on their way back to the finish... and I was struggling with every step.

I hit the turn around point and started on my way back... I saw a few friendly cheering faces in the oncoming crowd and that motivated me to keep going... but it wasn't until the 6Km mark that I saw something amazing that inspired me to not only make it to the end of the race, but to kick up my training and take it to the next level!

At the 6K mark, I look up and see this man walking towards me pushing a walker. He was old, over weight, and wearing a neck brace. He had his race bib on, and he was just there, slowly, putting one foot in front of the other, and smiling the whole time.

He brought tears to my eyes.

Then, around the next corner... I see this woman... her legs were deformed (for lack of a better word). She was obviously severely physically handicapped, walking from her hips because of the disability in her legs, using two walking sticks, and clearly struggling with every step. But there she was, with her race bib on, smiling at the oncoming runners, and just putting one foot in front of the other, doing HER race.

Again, tears came to my eyes and I thought... "suck it up princess, you've got less than 2K to go, and if they can do it, you can certainly do it"

I don't remember much more until the finish line... I remember looking at my watch at the 7K mark and thinking to myself 'Okay, I've got less than 7 minutes to go if I want to reach my goal, and I run 5:30/K, but I'm tired, and so..... "... I had a whole conversation in my head... thinking about these disabled people walking the race, and the elite athletes ahead of me... and my own personal struggle sin the race... and then I saw the finish line, kicked it in to high gear and got 'er done.

Then I realized, I didn't stop my watch at the line, and forgot to look at the clock....



About Accomplishments....

I went through the food lines, then headed over to the finish to see some of my running friends finish, then headed back to get changed in to some dry gear and warm up!

On my walk to get changed, I ran in to a friend who saw me finish... and she said I'd done it in 44 minutes... but I 'KNEW' that wasn't right because I was at 40 minutes at the 7K mark.

So we 'argued' she said 44 minutes, I said 47 minutes... whatever it was.. .I was done.

So we walked, changed, and headed back to the finish line to see our friends who were in the half marathon and marathon finish.

I am so proud of my friend Susan who finished the half marathon!

As we were watching the half marathon finishers... I looked up, and one after the other, I saw the two handicapped participants from earlier cross the finish line.

It may have taken them 3 hours, and it may have been the hardest thing they have done, but they did it... the crossed the finish line... and again, I was in tears.

Next, I watched my friend Stephen cross the finish line and achieve a goal he has had since the day I met him. He qualif... ]]> `princessmorgan http://princessmorgan.deviantart.com/journal/20908057/ http://princessmorgan.deviantart.com/journal/20908057/ Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:33:39 PDT

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