October 12, 2009

Start Strong, Finish Stronger

That saying was the motto of the Tufts 10K road race this morning. I did not run it this year - although there's no way I'm not running it next year - but instead I got to stand and cheer on my step mom, Joan Benoit, Olympic athletes and 8,000 female runners. I got all teary-eyed at the start of the race watching all of these amazing women run past me. There were the Olympic athletes and world-class runners, there were the running club teams, there were women out there running their first ever road race and there was even a little girl with downs syndrome running. I was in awe of every single runner out there this morning and was literally kicking myself for not running it, too.

I got home from watching the race and headed out the door again, on a run. I ran way faster than I should have; the images of all the amazing women crossing the finish line made me kick up my pace a little too much. But the motto is true: Start strong, finish stronger. If that little girl with downs syndrome can go out and run 6 miles, there is no way that we can't do that as well. Congratulations to all the runners this morning; you truly all are an inspiration.
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Welcome to Head Over Heels!

Like many 20-something women, I woke up one morning exasperated. It seemed like every day I would find a new passion, a new dream, and get excited about yet another project, just to find that they would all crash and burn. I wanted something that I could control and that would be all mine.

Because our 20s are a time of exploration and discovery, it's very hard to find that path that directs us exactly to our dreams, especially because our dreams have the habit of evolving overnight. I had worn myself into a tizzy of exhaustion, disappointment, and an overwhelming sense of having no control over my own life. And that's when I went for that first run.

Two minutes later, I arrived back at my apartment steps, panting. As long and as torturous as those two minutes felt, they also gave me a sense of liberation, a feeling that had been severely lacking in my life. The next day, pathetically still sore, I again put on my sneakers. Three minutes, yes! This routine was repeated daily throughout the summer and now, I'm a half-marathoner! My ultimate goal, a marathon, still looms in the distant future, but the even bigger goal is one I can actively work on every day: learning to gain control over my own life and learning to fall in love with myself one step at a time.