Best For Last

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.

Nike LunarGlide + RoadID ~ Do not leave home without it.  Trust me.

I had a bit of weakness and bought myself a late birthday present in the form of new running kicks.  I am so not a Nike gal, well haven’t been for a long time, but these called to me.  So far so good, but I haven’t run enough miles in them to give them a proper assessment yet.   Believe me, I am not the type to fall into the “all the cool kids have it” syndrome, but like I said they called to me.  Plus, I was at the NYCM Expo and there was all the newest and greatest running stuff and I just saw Grete Waitz and told her how awesome I think she is, so I was kinda pumped up.

Then, that very evening I had a ticket to attend the NYT TimesTalks and on the panel were Grete Waitz, Joan Benoit Samuelson and Deena Kastor.  With Lance Armstrong!  I bought a ticket pretty much the day of the event, I mean how could I NOT attend this once in a lifetime talk?  I wasn’t sure how I would react to seeing and hearing these woman ~ running legends but I have got to say, I was really choked up and shed a tear or two as they each told their story, stories that I knew already but was hungry to hear it in their own words, from their viewpoint.  It really made my evening to hear how each of them thought the word PLODDER was not cool when talking about marathoners.  Lance Armstrong was actually kinda cool ~ funny and he said that the marathon is HARD!  I am referring to this article in case any of you have not read it yet Plodders have a place, but is it in a marathon?

The majority of the folks running marathons are slow!  Majority RULES says Lance.   In a marathon, the first 20 miles is transportation, then start running, say’s Grete.

I was motivated and inspired as much as one person can be motivated and inspired.  TO JUST RUN because I love it.  Always have and always will.  Running is special.  Running is awesome.  Running just is.

On the day of my birthday Oct 27 ~ I thought to myself “today is the day I will run a sub 30 5K.  It just is.  I got out there all gung ho and set Seth ~ stood there a few moments just visualizing it and off I went.  I knew pretty much immediately, it wasn’t going to happen.  I felt sluggish and my legs were heavy.  Instead of the gliding feeling I feel when a run is going well, I felt as if I was trudging through mud.   Yeah, it wasn’t happening.  Baby Bear ran 5k in 30.32 A 9.49 min/mile and it just wasn’t good enough.

You know I went over it in my mind, but all I could come up with is “I have no idea”.  Then, a lot of my running buddies told me to move on and don’t think about it so much.  My sister said the same thing.  Some days are good and some days aren’t.  So, I took the advice of my sister and friends and let it go.

Today, the very last day of October ~ Halloween ~ I awoke and decided to get out and go for a run.  That’s it.  Just run.  Yes, I had Seth going but I didn’t glance at him so I really had no idea of where my pacing was.  At about 2 miles in, I glanced.  Yeah, I did.  I saw 19.48.  Hmm, pushing it,  I thought,  so I just kept at it.  Pushing, but it didn’t feel hard today.  You remember that gliding feeling I mentioned, well I was feeling that today.  I knew I was nearing 3 miles and I glanced again.  I saw 28.49 for 3 miles.  Yikes.  Run Michelle Run was all I heard in my mind.  Nearing 5k ~ BOOM Baby Bear ran 5K in 29.46.  9.34 min/mile.  Finally!

Ever since I broke my big toe on January 21st I have been struggling.  My running really suffered as did my emotions right along with it.  Sure, outwardly I was smiling and all happy, but inwardly I was really upset and hurting.  It was as if the thing I loved to do was just ripped away from me.  Worse than when you rip a bandaid off of a boo-boo.  It hurt.  And once I got the go ahead to run again, I worked my butt off and got nowhere FAST.  And that hurt even more.

So, today is really bitter sweet for me.  It is tinged with sadness, but oh is it special.  Today really marks my comeback.  Just knowing I can do it, is so huge.  It is just a 5k but to me it may as well have been a marathon, and on the eve of the NYCM I am honored to have met a goal that I have been working on, almost all year long.

Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible. Cherie Carter-Scott