Just Try!

This morning I set out for an easy (slow) 3 mile run. You probably know by now that I'm one of those strange people the actually "likes" running. It clears my head and starts my day off right. What you probably don't know is that even a 3 mile run is still hard for me. I can't seem to make that 3 miles without stopping to walk. Maybe it's psychological, maybe it's a physical barrier or maybe my body is just too conditioned to NOT run 3 miles. Whatever the case, it's been a very long time since I've been able to RUN that distance without walking some - even running at a snail's pace.

Today, I ran the WHOLE three miles! Then I ran another mile! Then I turned the corner and realized I either had to backtrack to get home (doing the math that would be an 8 mile run) or I needed to run up a fairly daunting set of hills to get home. If you live in the area, you know that the hill from Nall up 119th to Mission Rd. and then Mission Rd to 127th is a bugger!

I tried to run those hills on Saturday and stopped halfway through thinking I was going to need to call Steve to come get me. They. Kicked. My. Butt.

Well, today I  had to make it up those hills since Steve was at work. Since I didn't want to run 8 miles today, up the hills I went. I GAVE IT MY ALL AND I RAN THE WHOLE WAY!! It wasn't graceful. It wasn't pretty. At one point I flashed my sports bra at a car coming towards me since I had to wipe the sweat out of my eyes with my shirt. But I ran up those hills! I mastered every single one of them! As a bonus, I ended up running 6 miles!

I tried this same thing on Saturday... and failed. Yesterday, after having conquered my fear of water sports last Monday and getting up on the kneeboard for the first time, I tried to turn a 360 on the board ... and failed.

But I TRIED! Today I tried and succeeded. Yesterday I tried and failed. Tomorrow I might fail. Or, or might succeed. But I'm going to TRY something. I'm going to set a goal and TRY.

Don't worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try" ~ Jack Canfield