you never know just who you are going to inspire. Sometimes without even knowing it.

Years ago I was stopped at a stoplight when a young lady in her mid-20’s ran passed me.. perfect pace. perfect gait…. oblivious to the rest of the world, simply lost in her running.. so at one with herself.  At Peace.

and she had a rocking body da boot…..  which I’m sure was as a result of perseverance.

I thought to myself.

“self, you should try to run.. let’s go get a book”

and that we did….

I went to Borders…. ( can I just say how absolutely devastated I am at the demise of Borders???? )

we should all pause for a moment of intention for a generation that may never know the beauty of sitting in and oversized chair in a remote corner of a store flipping through books with  big dreams in their heads.

ok…  I’m back.  Soooo I bought this book.  And read the first 10 pages. It has sat on my shelf for years. and years. I’m a -scared to read the copyright date……

Then there was that Folgers’ commercial….  you know the one… it’s early morning, her alarm goes off.. her Folgers’ coffee is brewing while she is getting all race-if-ied… then she drinks her coffee.. it’s magical and next she is crossing the finish line  with her family high fiving her at the end..

( which imoho is much better than the Maxwell house commercial where they son comes home for Christmas to surprise his family & the little sister says that she is his gift…. it really is a sweet commercial… unless your son  is deployed across the world for Christmas… then the commercial takes on a whole new meaning )

we avoided the tv that year… it was just better.. I still was not really in control of my emotions…. I’m soo much better now 🙂

I also have a lot of friends who run. Some of them I barely know, some I know well.. Each of them had inspired me which is why I bit the bullet and signed up 🙂

sooooo our race day had finally arrived…..  After spending this night at casa hagg, we stopped at Dunkin donuts for some fuel…

and eye candy

lol 🙂 .. then we headed to Providence!!!   ( did anyone get my Last Resort Lyrics in my music post yesterday ?? ) the pics are pretty much self explanitory,,, so I’ll just post… Ya’ll are probably sick of my ‘race talk’ by now….. I promise and awesome salad and mexican sauce tomorrow 😉

once you walk 40 miles in 2 days for breast cancer, you learn to love the porta potty.  true story.

LET”S DO THIS!!!!!!!

now this wasn’t all heart and flowers… for me , it was fre-a-ken hard.  I trained ans still struggled… Jodie didn’t .. and she rocked it.  Truth be told, I held her back.  She has been an athlete all of her life and I have been more of the more laid back type… ❤ yoga<3.. that whole journey is a story in itself…  My lungs hurt like HELL!!!  then I started to feel sick.

At one point I am pretty sure that I flipped  Jodie off.  I’m not proud of that, but it;s the truth.  As we hit mile 3 there was a hill. A freaken hill for the last 10th of a mile of the race.  She told me to pound it out and finish strong… I was gasping for air and told her I was about to throw up.  She yelled at me and told me that I would not throw upa and to move my ass over that finish line.

I did. and as soon as I crossed, the gagging started and I thought for sure I was about to lose my cookies allover the crowd cheering everyone on.

if I had to go even 5 more feet… that would have been it. But thankfully…I did not have to go 5  feet… there was an angel from heaven standing there with a power bar recovery bar.

I kid you not when I tell you that my arm grew 5 feet and I reached through the crowd to take said bar.

I don’t think I’ve eaten something so good in my life.

Once my breathing came back to normal, we took this pic

WE DID IT!!!

I don’t regret signing up for a second. It was just as I thought it would be and will be doing this more as my time that is mine keeps unfolding.

this has been my screen saver fo the last 4 months…… and yes. I did do it !

so why keep doin’ that thing you do? Because you never know who you are inspiring.  I can almost bet you that the people that inspired me had NO idea.  I mean ZERO idea.  But I went out of my way to let a few of them know the night before the race. And they were shocked. If I hadn’t had let them know, they never would have known just how inspiring they are..

so here’s your turn… think about someone who has inspired you.. even just a little. Reach out and thank them. Chances are they have no idea and they should know! because they have helped you become who you are 🙂

namaste friends 🙂