I Am Speed - Kachow!

Steve and I crossing the finish line. I'm going so fast I was just a blur. LOL! Truth is, Steve had finished 15 minutes earlier and was just running me in and it was taken with my Blackberry so it would be blury. But I can dream right?!!

Nothing in the world feels like this. At the finish line with some of my favorite people in the whole world!

It really is "all about the shirt!" I got to trade in the XL I had ordered for a L and it's a good thing too. That sucker was huge on me!!!

July16. It was suppose to be one of the hottest days of the year. Suppose to be. As I made my way to the crowd of almost 500 people gathering on the asphalt it was down right cool. If I wasn't getting ready to run, I would have probably gone back to the car for a hoodie. But I was. It was dark and the street lights were flickering and the bullhorn droned on about the shirts and the turn around and blah blah blah. My mind melted into a place where I was alive and free and ready to run. As I closed my eyes I was back at Fitness Ridge getting ready to step up on the treadmill. I looked out the full window in front of me at the red rock canyons. I saw the heat rising off the asphalt. I tasted the sunscreen on my lips. In my hands were my Fitness Ridge water bottle with my name in sharpie marker and a towel to mop off the sweat that would soon overtake me. I pushed the start button. "I am speed." "I can and I'm worth this."

The horn went off and I was back home running. There were people pressing in on all sides of me, but I paced myself. Still being new to this I would be lucky if I walked/ran the whole thing. But here I was on the verge of losing enough weight to be in one-derland, running in a 5K, and feeling like I was free. It's funny how we see ourselves. Six months ago I would have barely been able to walk this 3.2 miles. I would have gone so far and told myself "I can't do this - it's too hard." I would have probably quit early and said, "Oh well, at least I walked some."

That's just not me anymore and I'm really having a hard time with this person I've created. She likes to wear form fitting clothes, and dance around the house to Lady Gaga, and try on clothes in shops just for the fun of it. She even looks at herself in the mirror again, and gets looked at by other men besides her husband. That ones the kicker! ROFL kicker! I think it's been at least 14 years since another man flirted with me. I got it at the hotel in Vegas on my way home. I called Steve and told him what happen and we both laughed, but I heard him loading his 9mm with bullets;)

So back to the race... These people were FAST! Before we hit the first mile I looked behind me and there couldn't have been more than a dozen people left. At this point you might think, "wow, I going to be last, or there's no way I can do this or finish this or whatever." You know what I thought? "I need to get passed that 75 year old man who just passed me cause DANG how aweful is that!" And I thought, "I am doing this, and I'm going to beat my time tonight!" And that's just what I did. I ran til I couldn't and then I walked til I could breath again, ran some more, and when we hit the water stand and we were still outbound I started to jog. We were about an 1/8 of a mile to the turnaround and I didn't stop. I just kept on jogging and Tiffany started to talk me home. I need to clarify here. Tiffany wasn't physically with me. She was one of my trainers at the Ridge. No, I'm not crazy, just zoned out. The thing about being at Fitness Ridge for a whole month is that I learned enough mantras from Tiffany to keep it going in my head long enough to finish the 5K. I guess when I bump up to a 10K it will be time to go back and learn more mantras huh? Sounds good to me;) I jogged and I jogged and I jogged, jogged, jogged (thank you Dr. Suess) And then there was Steve. He had finished and had come out to run me in. Tiffany was shouting at me now, because that's the only way I was going to finish. She had jumped up on my treadmill and was yelling encouragement to me in every possible way. I rounded the corner and up into the parking lot I broke out into a full sprint. "Finish strong, play big, I can, I'm worth it, No boundries, Keep it up, Keep it up, You can do this..." My mind was cloudy, I ran past the timer board and into the chute, someone handed me a water and told me I could walk it out, someone handed me my card. I had finished. I had beat my time. I had done it.

"Just do it!" Nike puts it out there plain and simple and if we only listen to their call and take the first step of tying up our laces and putting one foot in front of the other, we too can say, "I Just Did It!" Does it hurt? Heck yes. Is it mental? Yes again. Can you put a price to it? Absolutely not, never. Period. Here's what I'm thinking. Did it hurt to be fat? Duh! Did it hurt to put that needle in my arm every morning and give myself a diabetic shot? Absolutely. Was it mental when I went to shop for clothes and had three stores I could go to? Mental, yes! Guys, we don't have to listen when our mind tells us we can't! We are so much stronger than we think!!!! So, so, much stronger.

I have made it a goal to do a Tough Mudder in the next year with Steve. Google it. 10 miles of running with British Intelligence Special Forces obstacles at every half mile. Icy water swimming, running though tires, climbing walls with ropes, and the ever feared jelly fish tenticles. Oh yeah, those are the best. Ha! You have to run through live wires hanging down that shock you. LOL! It's like Jack Bauer training camp for everyday folks. Sign me up, cause as they say at Fitness Ridge, "This is your new normal."