The greatest pleasure in life is doing the things people say we cannot do.
-Walter Bagehot
I've never been a great athlete, or an athlete at all really. I lack the necessary coordination for most sports and always feared letting my teammates down with my lack of skill. I also had little confidence in what my body was capable of. I accepted that I was an artist, a musician, a booknerd, but not an athlete. It was never part of my identity, until now. I accomplished something huge yesterday, something huge for me. I ran an entire 5k. Slowly. But I ran it! It's something that I've wanted to do just to prove that I could and I did. However, there is no way I could have done it without my friends, particularly Christina.
 |
| Christina and I pre-race. |
She ran with me the whole time even though I'm sure she could have run it faster, and when I did want to stop and walk she reminded me of why I was doing this and that my body could do it as long as I believed I could. She was truly inspirational and I owe so much of this victory to her.
However, I had more support than I realized. A few days before the race I found out that several of my other friends were doing the race as well. We all ran different speeds and finished at different times, but it was amazing having them there all the same!
 |
| Me, Lindsey, Adrienne, and Jemilia |
 | |
| The UNCDub crew pre-race: Phil, Lindsey, me, Christina, Adrienne, Lindsey, Jemilia, and Justin in his funny little shoes. |
 |
| Post race with Jenn, Christina, and a bright red tomato face! |
It was an incredible experience in addition to being an emotional one. The second I crossed the finish line I just burst into tears. I think I was crying for what I had accomplished, the person that I am now and the person I used to be. The one that never thought I could do this, that my body could do this. I really like the quote at the beginning of this post, but with a minor adjustment:
The greatest pleasure in life is doing the things we say we cannot do.
*Title attributed to Martin Mull
Congratulations, Sarah! I am so proud of you and I know you are so proud of yourself too for this awesome accomplishment -and rightly so! I am also smiling over here because we are (almost) on the same wavelength - you're just ahead of me a bit. Tomorrow I am going to start couch to 5k for many of the same reasons you've talked about here. In fact, I've already my blog post about doing it and my reasons - I intended to start on Friday but gots sick, so Monday is d-day for me! I am scared but motivated and I am now more inspired by you!
ReplyDeleteThanks Grace! You can totally do it! If I can, no doubt you can. Maybe one day we can run one together! Somewhere fun and international. Do you think Paris has many 5ks? :)
ReplyDeleteOh that would be magnifique! If they don't, we make our own Parisian 5K! xoxo
ReplyDeleteSo proud of you!!!
ReplyDelete