Looking Back

I don’t usually post a lot on my Facebook page, but every once in a while I write something that I think is pretty good. I don’t know a) how many people are ever going to look at this blog, and b) how many of them are going to be my Facebook friends, so I’m just going to re-post this here. 

This is… not a great picture of probably anyone in it, but I love it. Four years ago today, I ran the first race of my life, a 5K obstacle course race. This is what I looked like. Shins taped, knee braces on both legs. I came home exhausted and spent most of the rest of the weekend sleeping, and then I hobbled for the next couple of days. I think I trained about ten weeks for this race, and I hurt for an awful lot of it.

I don’t have a good reason for why I fell in love with running, but I did, and I still love it. Four years ago, I ran a 5K race, and tomorrow I’m going to go be part of a four-person relay team, each running about 31 miles on desert trails.

I’m not posting this terrible picture because I want to toot my own horn. I’m posting it because I am profoundly grateful to have been able to be on this journey, and because I’m hoping it might be helpful to some of you, too. I started out slow and in pain, and I stayed that way for a long time. But it got better, and I got better. The things that it’s possible to do are just staggering.