The girls started barking to alert me that someone was in the street, I looked out the window and there was a UPS truck, I really thought nothing about it and went back to what I was doing. Later that day I went out to grab my mail and saw that UPS had left a package for me. I wasn’t really expecting anything so I wasn’t sure what this was, when I picked it up I saw it was for one of my charity races that I had signed up for but they where running behind sending out their “swag.”
I have three 5k’s this year that will benefit children’s hospital. My love for this has built over time. It started with me joining a fitness group during 2020 to keep myself moving when the gym was not an option. I started doing “races” virtually in October because honestly I loved the medal and the Witches of Salem always interested me. These races are not all 5k’s in fact many of them are odd mileage’s. I finished the witches one and next one they offered was Frankenstein and I signed up for that one because I enjoyed the fitness group and I was enjoying what I was seeing and learning along the way.
On Thanksgiving I did my first 10k in over two years, my timing was horrible, but I had run a 10k; something I was sure was never going to happen again after I broke my ankle. I cried happy tears as I entered my time. Yes, this was all still virtual but it didn’t matter. What mattered is that I ran a 10k on a treadmill in my living room watching TV on an ankle I was sure would never make it more than 2 miles at any given time.
A lot of this as become a mind game so to speak, oh I have made it 2.25 I can make it to 2.5 from 2.5 you tell yourself you can make it to 3.11 for that 5k. I tell myself all the time that my time doesn’t matter, what matters is that I am doing it. I am doing something that I oddly enough enjoy and I always feel better after I run.
This can apply to so many things in our lives, what do we do so that we feel better mentally and physically? So many times we find ourselves struggling with balance for our lives that we end up sacrificing those things that make us feel better about ourselves. It’s hard, society says we need to look a certain way, do certain things, be certain people to be successful. Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, we are successful navigating through this life?
I was talking to my dad a few weeks back and he said we have so many things to look forward to, and I was like okay, like what? and he starts talking about the little things in life that we forget about in our busy lives, that I started to laugh and then I realized that after open heart surgery, you celebrate the little things in life.
I celebrated that first 5k and I celebrated my first 10k post ankle break, and this summer as I am putting in my miles I will be celebrating the fact that I get to do this for me. Life has not been easy, it was never promised to be, but if you do not celebrate the small stuff and call each day a success you just make it so much harder on yourself.
Until next time,
Juli
Juli's Blog 