“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
Sometimes I think about this... what is it I want to do with my wild and precious life?
Are what I want to do and what I've planned for and am working to do the same thing?
***
I had a lot of time to think when I was running the race on Saturday.
It wasn't even intentional...my ipod wouldn't even turn on. It worked the night before and it wouldn't even turn on when the race started.
I got mad and sort of panicked. How in the world was I supposed to run 13 miles without my music? The pounding of my feet and the sound of my breathing are not good motivation!
I panicked slightly more when my inhaler didn't seem to do a single thing for me.
And I wasn't in a good mood for the first few miles.
But then I decided to stop praying that my ipod would work and just pray that I'd be able to do it well without my ipod or inhaler and decided to stop thinking about it.
And it worked.
***
I don't know exactly what the metaphor for life is or whatever, but all I know is that I didn't feel fully prepared, things didn't go the way I'd planned, and it worked out swimmingly.
I had to work my butt off and it was one of the hardest things I've done, but I did it.
What surprised me the most was that it seemed much quicker than I ever thought it would. Maybe that's because I wasn't measuring time by songs, but it seemed way quicker.
Mile 9 was the longest mile of the whole thing, and mile 12 was the most painful, but they passed.
I could have kissed the little guys that were handing out gatorade on the trail, and I've never thought yucky lemon-lime gatorade could taste so delicious.
***
So, the last mile of the race we were taking it pretty slow (Bryan's knee hurt) and this girl sorta caught up to us. She was running at like a 10 minute mile pace, and we were running about half the time at like a 9 minute mile pace and walking here and there. Anyway, so we sorta passed each other a few times.
She had her phone playing music out loud, and the first song was "Roar" (Katy Perry) which I love. It was so empowering and awesome, especially after NO music the whole time!
We walked and she went on ahead of us. Then we ran and caught up to her, and the song on her phone was "Brave" (Sara Bareilles). Oh man. Love it.
So, during the last mile (no thanks to the songs) was when I realized that I had actually done this, and I got really emotional. I teared up a little but wouldn't let myself cry or anything because it's hard enough to run without giving myself a headache or something.
But I was really proud.
Final time: 2:27:30
***
After the race I drank and ate too fast I guess (just water, half a banana, half an orange, and a few chips) and puked my guts out about an hour later.
But I was even a bit proud of that... it was hard enough that I puked after, but I did it anyways!
***
So, what is it I want to do with my one wild and precious life?
I want to do hard things.
I want to do things that I'm not good at (like running), and I don't want to skate by. I want to go all out! (Like running a half marathon!)
I want to do the things I'm good at SO well that I can feel proud of myself.
I want to be brave and try things that, in the back of my head, I think "yeah, there's no way" (like running a half marathon! lol).
I want to see "how big [my] BRAVE is". :)
“When it’s over, I want to say: All my life I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.”
You're amazing! It's crazy to see what things we can do when we put our minds to it!
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