Today I woke up knowing I was going to take on 6 miles. What I didn't yet understand is the amount of hills that would be on my path. I don't look at the routes in detail before we go and I don't often know exactly where we will be running to. This week we started in Newport and went all the way up to Eden Park. For those of you that don't know Cincinnati, this includes a lot of hills. There's 4 parts of the hill with only small level breaks in between. It was hard to even enjoy the places that were leveled out because all I could do was dread the next hill in front of me.
At one point, I raised my hand and said "I'm walking," and took one walking step. One of my teammates grabbed my arm and said, "Oh no you're not. Once you start walking it's hard to stop walking." Then another teammate told me I could make it and decided to stay with me as we trudged up the hill together. He is a veteran runner and got me up the very last hill. It was another episode of "Lauren's going to barf." He explained to me that I felt this way because my heart rate was too high and that as soon as I got to the top to put my hands on my head to help open up my chest. It's such a mental struggle because in my head I kept telling myself I couldn't do it. Luckily my teammate just kept saying "You are almost there. Keep going!" It was a battle in my head but guess what? I made it! Once I got to the top I caught my breath again and grabbed a drink of water. We did not get long to enjoy the view, but it surely was beautiful.
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| Thanks for getting me to the top Marc |
On the way back I got to make conversation with Marc and hear about his journey. I LOVE hearing about everyone's journey. It motivates me. When I joined the group I just assumed everyone had always been runners and I was out of my element. This is yet another person I've talked to that started where I am today. Every week I learn more about the "strangers" that I see twice a week and it makes me feel like I have real friends behind me that want me to accomplish all my goals. When we were coming across the Purple People Bridge, back into Newport, one of my coaches, Jerry shouted, "Lauren you just broke your personal record. How does it feel?!" I cheered and my teammates cheered for me too. When we got back to the store, another teammate came up to me and said, "You did so great," and gave me a high five. My coach, Stacey told me I did awesome. Being part of something so positive where people truly want the best for each other is just so amazing. These people barely know me, yet they don't want me to fall behind. These people might not even know my name, but they go out of their way to cheer me on. Thank you to my team and coaches. Side note, I wish we had a team name!
I was very happy when I got home, which brings me to the next person I need to thank. My husband, T.J. has been so flexible during my training. I am working out 6 days a week on top of my job and meetings after school. There is always a healthy, hot meal waiting on me when I come home based around my schedule. He has done nothing but encourage me and push me to keep going. Thank you T.J.!
Although this is MY journey, and although I've said before that this is something I'm doing for MYSELF, and it's about ME..... I do nothing alone. Thank you to everyone who is encouraging me.
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