…then read on for the correct answer.
I realized recently, in speaking with a friend, that according to some “another 50k” for me wasn’t really that big of a deal. My friend explained: “I mean, come on, you do them all the time so they’re probably easy for you by now.”
Many of you probably don’t know this about me but when I was 23 I was supremely inactive, unhealthy and very overweight (weighing in nearly 70 pounds more than I weigh now). I got my act together and changed my own life through gallons and gallons of blood, sweat and tears.
However, that very lost girl is and always will be a part of me. And even though you can’t see her, every race she walks to the start line with me.
The truth is that these 30+ mile races still make me nervous – I mean a lot can go wrong in 6-7 hours of running, especially on the trails. The lost girl in me wants me to stop – no, she BEGS me to stop. I hear her voice every step of these long journeys. There’s nothing I can do to silence her.
After all these years, I have learned to let her speak and speak she does. I hear her but I never listen to her. She is a part of me but the rest of me knows – without any doubt – that I am unstoppable. So I just keep on truckin.
Now, back to the photo – it was taken of me at the finish line of my 3/5/2016 ultra. That face is not one of sadness or depletion or brokenness or pain and it’s not even relief. No, that face is the face of victory and sheer pride – not just for the miles I’ve run but for all that I’ve fought so hard to overcome.
Yes, I said it. I AM PROUD OF THE PERSON I’VE BECOME.