Seriously, if you would have asked me a year ago what I was going to do on Thanksgiving Day 2009, my plans would not have included getting up at 6:30am to run a 5k even though it was only 49 degrees outside after being diagnosed with a sinus infection less than 24 hours before.
But I’m hard core like that.
Wednesday night, it was up in the air what I was even going to do. I felt like crap and I wasn’t sure the antibiotics were going to have enough time to kick in. I decided that I would play it by ear and see what I felt like Thursday morning.
Then I sat down to watch Biggest Loser: Where Are They Now?
They did a whole segment on Matt Hoover, the winner from Season 2. He competed in the Iron Man in Kona, HI, and I cried during most of the coverage of it. Then they did section on several of the BL alums who ran a 1/2 marathon in Detroit. And I cried during most of the coverage of it.
How can I sit there and complain that I don’t have time or too much to do or WHATEVER and there’s no way I can exercise or run or WHATEVER when these phenomenal people are just doing it? They are getting up, deciding to do it and then doing it.
So that’s what I did. I got up Thursday morning, got ready to run, went to the race and ran.
I got passed by many more people than I passed myself, but I jogged in place instead of stopping when I reached a bottle neck in the course. I kept running when I got to the hill and then chose to not let the hill defeat me. I ran to the top of that hill and kept on going. I ran for a full 22 minutes before I stopped to walk…that’s the longest I’ve gone before. I only let myself walk for 1:30, then I started running again and I ran to the end.
I defeated my attitude, I defeated my sickness, and I defeated that damn hill. I made myself CHOOSE to keep going. I did that. But it was a choice. A choice to not be defeated by my fear and self-doubt.
I made that choice.
And so can you. CHOOSE to do your best. CHOOSE to not give up. CHOOSE to take one more step than you thought you could. CHOOSE to do one more thing today than you did yesterday.
When you’ve made even one of those choices, you’ve already won.
Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.
-Karen Kaiser Clark
Turkey Trot 5k 2009 – Unofficial time: 35:41