As the title of the post suggests, yesterday I participated in the Race for Life - a cause that is extremely dear to my heart. As my training went to the way side due to various summer colds, hay fever and if i'm honest a lack of get up an go. Because of this I ended up walking it. I managed to do it in 1 hour 9 minutes and 33 seconds. Which, considering that we had blazing heat, then rain, then gusting wind, then blazing heart, then rain, then gusting wind over and over and over again I'm happy with. That and according to my Map My Walk app it was 5.10k NOT 5 k - that extra .10 of a k absolutely made all the difference. Today I am paying for it, i'm incredibly sore, my poor achilles of my bad (arthritic, once snapped) leg is really sore and even my shoulder blades ache. At 2.5k my bad leg threw a bit of a paddy and started to refuse to co-operate with me so for the last 2.5k I'm pretty sure my left leg was doing all the work. For that last k I was staring at my trainers, counting out 100 steps then looking up, then back to the floor - because if I carried on looking upward then the finish line just wasn't coming any closer!! I'd say it was about 1 hour of hell (the first 9 minutes were fine ;) )
But despite all this, all the pain, all the voices in my head telling me to stop, despite my leg throwing a stop I just carried on, putting one foot in front of the other foot. And I finished. And something else, I didn't come last. And something else? Despite it being somewhat slower than I hoped, I did it all without stopping, not even pausing for a second. I did it. I DID IT!!!! I'm even fully intending on doing it again next year. And the year after that. And the year after that. I will do this until there's a cure. I'm also intending to do the Colour Run next year as well - It's fair to say i've caught the bug. It hurt like hell, but as I crossed that finish line a massive smile spread across my face that I couldn't control. And i'm extremely proud of my medal. By this time next year I'll (hopefully) be slimmer and fitter and smash my time from this year.
What was particularly lovely was that my Mr stood there, at the finish line, and cheered me on. And the first thing he said was 'You did amazing, I'm so proud of you!' :) He also took loads of photos.
Off there in the distance is my crossing the finish line. Notice the time, that's because I only crossed the start line 3 minutes in. lol.
This is my 'I DID IT!!!' photo. Complete with my medal and my flower from my dear Mr W. I know i'm not smiling, that's because I hate myself when I smile in photos. Over the years I've perfected the one raised eyebrow, smirking photo pose. I have very few photo's of me doing anything else bit this. lol
See, I'm smiling in this one. I've also collapsed onto the grass. The thumbs up was to prove to my mister that I was still alive, and hadn't actually full on collapsed.
I clumped these all together. The top 1 is me pinning by back sign to the why you ran sign, and then there's a photo of my sign amongst the others. And then just a pic showing more of them. The bottom 2 photo's are me, holding up the sign that Mr W was cheering me on with.
I must admit I'm super proud of myself. I did have a few anxiety attacks before. One before I left the house and one in Dad's car on the way, I'm just thankful I didn't have any at the venue, or even worse, during that would have prevented me from participating. I did it, that's all that matters to me. And if I can do it, lugging around 27 stone in weight, anyone can. Never doubt yourself, even if your the slowest one there your still doing amazing, and it's all for an epic cause.
Peace Out x
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