There are just some times you have to push yourself above and beyond any limits you thought you had on yourself. This year, I have transformed the way I look at my health, my activities and my train of thought toward myself. I have torn down every limit, and every wall, as many who know me well know.
Before this year there were a whole lot of things that I thought I couldn’t or I just wouldn’t do. For example, running 3 miles. Three miles doesn’t sound like much and for me would be a small step toward a new goal, but for me was still lofty when I started. Three miles is a lot for someone who was “that girl” in gym class that whined everytime the Presidential fitness tests came around. My sisters were the ones that always got the patches, medals and standing ovations. I was the one that was huffing and puffing as I made my bajillionth lap around the small square around the fifth and sixth grade building. I always wondered why they never took us to a track, or something that we didn’t have to run 18 laps around. Instead, we stayed right in our cozy little corner of Casstown and I had the added torture of running by my house 18 times. I just wasn’t into it.
So, setting a goal at the beginning of the year of running as much as I have was a new start and a new life (one, I love might I add.) In the beginning I got some doubts from other people, but also had some doubts within myself, even though I claimed there were none. But everytime I got off the treadmill at my mom and dad’s house drenched in sweat like I’ve never been before and they would ask me “How many today?,” I would respond and would always receive a smile and a “good job.” Everytime I got those smiles my doubts faded away and I slowly gained more confidence in myself.
As I have said before, I have reached all my goals and even have surpassed them. I have ran more 5K’s than I planned, a 10K and even worked up to a half-marathon and now am about to go on another new adventure.
I have been planning to participate in an event with Sam for quite awhile now. We have been training for it and have been researching it and pretty much consuming ourselves with it. And Saturday it will be our reality.
Some people have heard of the Warrior Dash and I even know quite a few people who have done it. I have wanted to do a Warrior Dash since starting all my new adventures, but have decided with Sam that we would just go big or go home — we are doing just that. A few months ago we both signed up for the Tough Mudder competition. The tough mudder is 12 miles, 25 obstacles and is outside in Indiana in November. We are going to be diving through water, running across ice and running through live electrical wire…in the middle of November.
I have to tell you, at first I was a little nervous. Sam and I would sit down and watch the videos of other competitions in other parts of the nation and watch as people fell on their faces, fell down flat walls and twitched as they ran through the electrical wire. As we continued the conversation of us and his friends doing it, I got more and more excited.
There were many Saturdays we woke up and went to Duke Park to start training. There were even Saturdays when we would run a 5K then go to Duke and meet up with friends to continue training. Now, let me just say the obstacles at Duke, while they are nice (Thank you to all who help maintain them, ) are not like what they will be on Saturday. The obstacles still helped prepare us for what we are going to face on Saturday.
So now, Saturday, after being the girl that whined because I had to run 18 laps around my old school, I have turned myself into a girl that will be running 12 miles and completeing a list of obstacles that many would have never imagined they would see me doing. The mudder is going to be the key ending of a great season. After the mudder, it will be the starting of more training to prepare for next season — with more adventures and new competitions.
Don’t worry, you’ll get an update on the mudder, just as long, as my parents don’t have to worry about that death waiver I’m going to have to sign.
Katie Yantis appears every Wednesday in the Troy Daily News.
No comments:
Post a Comment