So this morning, a friend (Brittany) sent me an email that really made my day! She sent me a PDF of a presentation she saw...where the subject was RESILIENCE. She told me: "Each of us has our own story, our own setbacks and our own triumphs...and its all apart of our journey through the "human condition. Its amazing to see how resilient humans are and can be."

There are a lot of things that I thought I would never be able to do, but just as this marathon keeps proving to me, THE HUMAN CONDITION is INCREDIBLE....I'm amazed at what I have been able to achieve and continue to do besides the emotional and physical setbacks. I don't want to be a person that is constantly blaming those circumstances that surround me...for my inability to live a fulfilling life! It's always our choice! It's our choice to thank those around us who give us the opportunity to stop everything and start over from scratch. It's our choice to look at the things that are making us suffer or causing internal conflict when we look in the mirror and CHANGE that about OURSELVES. We are the only ones that should be amazed at who see see staring back at us in the mirror every morning (wink wink).

As the reality of this marathon creeps closer and the pain from my bike accident 14 days ago still hasn't
allowed me to run more than 8 miles...I realize that success and failure are subjective. Sunday morning's race will be run to push my limits--obviously the physical ones, but my limits of courage as well. I'll be
needing a MONUMENTAL amount of courage for this next chapter as one story ends and another one beautifully begins. I will need courage to not back out, and NOT GIVE UP on myself, on my goals, on my dreams, and on the future that I see! I need courage to continue to love my life and be thankful for all the amzing people in it who challenge me everyday to BE BETTER. 

- Happy Marathoning!

A couple years ago while serving as an Agriculture volunteer in the Peace Corps in Panama, I was out on a regular morning run through one of the "soccer fields" (aka area without trees and temporarily without cars full of potholes but with two bamboo goals and relatively low grass) in my community, when all of a sudden I felt a snap in my right foot and the pain instantly brought me to the floor. I was nervous to even unlace my shoe for fear that I would find my foot broken in half. 

The experience was one I will never forget. Not only did it take Peace Corps Nurse 2 1/2 hours to get to me from the PC headquarters, but the entire day felt just out of a SITCOM.

But back to my injury: When I finally arrived at the hospital in Panama City, and confirmed that the excruciating pain I was feeling was in fact due to a fracture in my arch and not an over dramatic/low-pain tolerance cry for attention....that's when the fun really started. Doctors and nurses asked me HOW THIS HAD HAPPEND. As I spoke, they huddled around, inching closer and closer like toddlers at a library story-time or groupies around basketball players. They got a kick out of the fact that I had sustained my injury from RUNNING....not running from anything or anyone, not running somewhere specific, and not even with a soccer ball (on the soccer field). They rolled their eyes, snickered, grunted, and some straight up laughed in my face. As they walked away, I could hear them mumble under their breath-- "crazy Americans" (as if I wasn't 2 feet away on the stretcher). They didn't get it.

Running as a sport, for exercise, for fun, and even more so as a social activity is relatively new in some places. But even here, in this FIRST WORLD country we live in, there are many people that still find it CRAZY and have a hard time wrapping their head around the sport.

The other day, when a friend of mine posted the picture below on Instagram, it got me thinking. The picture  read: "Sometimes you can't explain what you see in a person, it's just
the way they take you to a place where no one else can." At that moment I realized that at one point or another we have all fallen in love, reeeeaaaaallllyyy liked someone, or been completely infactuated with another person.  At those times, we may have been at a loss when our friends asked us WHY HIM (or Her)? Though we may have tried to put together a "good" list to justify our reasoning, our attraction, or emotions---sometimes we were just unable. We just knew it felt right.

At the risk of soundy cheesy, I can say the same applies to running: Sometimes you can't explain what it is about running, it's just the way it can take you to a place where nothing else can. Now I'd be lying if I said every run I did,  I felt head over heels for the sport, because some days are just downright hard,  but overall, when I'm running I feel that I'm doing exactly what I'm meant to be doing. As runners we find reasons to lace our shoes back up time and time and time again for weeks, months, and years because of that PLACE that running allows us to get to. A place that only each individual runner knows about, understands, and most of the time can't explain. And just like when you are in love, it doesn't matter if the people around you get it or not, think you are crazy, snicker, laugh, or question you......as long as it makes sense to you, feels right to you--- THAT'S ALL THAT REALLY MATTERS!

- Happy Running