Tuesday, November 13, 2012

It's Never Too Late...

"No matter our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born."

-Dale Turner

I know y'all are probably tired of the inspirational-type quotes by now, but I truly never get sick of them.  Every morning, I wake up to a quote from Runner's World Magazine and they're always from a motivational standpoint.  While I don't necessarily like ALL of the quotes I get, I do find one every so often that I think is very inspirational and worthy of sharing.  Not all of the quotes are from runners or necessarily about runners, but are still great quotes nonetheless. 

Today's quote is one I find to be very true.  It's never too late to start ANYTHING.  I can very easily apply this one to my running life.  I never thought I'd start running at the age of 25 and my only regret about my journey is that I didn't start sooner.  But what can you do when you're still stuck in a lazy mentality (and believe me when I say that I used to be VERY lazy)?  Thankfully something clicked in my head the day I saw the embarrassing number on the scale and whatever untapped motivation that was sparked a fire within me and now I can't live my life without being active and healthy.  People ask me all the time how I got into running because they KNEW how lazy I used to be when it came to working out and living a healthy lifestyle.  I tell them the story about my trip to the lady doc and that it took off from there.  Some of the most powerful and encouraging conversations I've had are those when people ask me for running advice.  I NEVER thought I'd be the person someone turned to for advice on how to eat healthy or get started with running.  It's been very rewarding over the years, more specifically for the past year or so as that's when I started getting a lot more serious about my running.

I am truly flattered when people ask me for running advice.  Since my last post, which I know has been quite some time (things have been a little hectic and very stressful- more to come on that later), I've placed in my age group in 3 races!  I placed 1st in my age group in the Paint the Mall Pink 5K on October 7, 3rd in my age group in the Anything is Possible 5K on November 3, and 2nd in my age group this past weekend at the JE Dunn 5K!  After I finished the race this past weekend, a gentleman walked up to me and thanked me for helping him keep pace (I paced at 8:15/mi for this race).  It's very encouraging as a runner to have people ask you for advice or tell you that they use you as a pacer.

My journey over the years shows that if you can stick with something, fully dedicate yourself to it, that there truly are untapped possibilities within us.  Again (and I know I continue to say this), I NEVER thought I'd be able to call myself a runner, run races almost every weekend, or even place in a race, but I can and I do and I have.  It's a great feeling to be so committed to something and have people recognize it about you.  So go out and discover something you love and keep at it!  You'll find the results SO incredibly rewarding!

Happy Reading!

xoxoxo,

Britt!

Anything is Possible 5K - Finish time of 25:14, placed 3rd A/G (out of 84), 46/758 in Women Overall, 166/1191 Overall, 8:08/mi pace.  All starting at 150 AM so we could finish before we started (time changed!)- VERY FUN RACE!!!

Paint the Mall Pink 5K - Finish time of 26:31, placed 1st A/G (out of 21),  18/225 Women Overall, 48/299 Overall