I am not a runner and yet I did this

I am not a runner. I keep healthy by doing yoga, walking and I play Tennis. My husband and 2 of our daughters had signed up for a race. Our 20 year old daughter was sick the night before and our youngest daughter, 13 (Bella) suggested I take the extra race Bib and just walk the race instead. My old self would have shut that idea down so fast and found so many valid reasons why this was not a good idea. My newer version of myself, the one who has grown over the last year through Growth Day and the HP habits said: “what can I learn here and imagine how I will feel at the end”? Plus, I need to model for my girls that even at my age, I can try and accomplish new and scary things. On Sunday, so many opportunities to back down faced us that morning. There had been an accident, so we were arriving there very close to the start time, there were over 1,000 people so no parking to be found. It got a little hairy to say the least and my main focus was getting the 2 runners to the start line. My husband (30 km) and Bella (5 km). Once we finally got them where they had to be, I could have justified not having enough time to get to the start line after parking, I would be so late, etc. Something that my old self would have probably done.

All of a sudden after I finally parked the car, 4 minutes to start time, I took a deep breath and counted 5-4-3-2-1 Mel Robbins , I got out of the car, jogging to the starting line, fumbling with my keys, phone, earbuds, dropping my mitt. I was probably the very last person to cross the start line by the time I got there.

I finally got my earbuds to try and listen to something to calm down - I clicked play on my phone and so incredibly ironic the Sunday daily Fire Brendon Burchard came on that I had just listened to that morning. I remembered it was approx. 9 mins long. So I told myself to run for the duration of that daily Fire and I did. I was amazed that I ran by then probably 10 minutes so I kept going… I thought I will run until I see Bella. I knew she would loop back at the 2.5 km mark. So I kept focused on looking for her pink jacket and pink hat. And there she was running back on the course on the left of me looking proud and strong, smiling. She said: “Hi Maman - way to go - you are doing great! “

That energized me so much. I just kept going. I clicked on another learn course of HP habits on my phone - it fell on « Energy » and I listened to that and let it lull me - sorry Brendon Burchard into a calm state to battle the chatter in my head until I got to the 2.5 km mark. Then I could walk the rest. THAT inner VOICE. “Ok, this is great, now you can walk. You were only going to walk so this is great. Now, you can walk the rest or just walk a little then you can run again… it was a constant battle.” With all the physical activity I do regularly, I knew my body could handle and do this. It is the MIND. It was such a battle and I just kept pushing through it with Brendon’s voice in my ears - I wanted to finish - I just had to.

The finish line was in the big Arena - I knew nothing about this… I just kept running and saw the finish line, could hear the announcer, the crowd cheering on and then saw a man in front of me running - jogging and something came over me. I thought I am here, almost done, I was supposed to be walking this and I did it. But now, really I could push just a little more and try to sprint and pass that man. So, I don’t know what came over me, I started to sprint and focused on the runner in front of me. Do you know what he did? He glanced at me and started to speed up to try and race me to the finish line. We were laughing and running - crossed the finish line almost at the same time, laughing and high fiving !!! He said: « Thank you! Thank you for pushing me! » That was the best feeling. Not only did I feel great about my triumph, I also helped someone else do better.

The entire 29.33 mins experience taught me so much. It also is such a parallel with life and growth. Had I stayed on the side line cheering on my husband and Bella, it would have been great. This extra leap I took that was all but 30 mins taught me so much and allowed me to experience such a wonderful learning opportunity on so many levels. It gave me so much insight on how this is applicable in life and growth!!! I hope this encourages or inspires even one person to just get out there. Do something uncomfortable or a little intimidating - you never know what is in store for you at that finish line.