I love the 4th of July because it reminds me of how truly blessed I am to live in a free country with endless opportunities. I hope everyone is enjoying some needed family time! (It’s also near my birthday (July 2), so I feel like I get fireworks for my birthday! :))
To start my 4th of July off, I ran a 5 K with beautiful my sister-in-law, Sara. I’ve always ran for exercise and a mental escape, but Sara has encouraged me to run a couple of races with her. This was my second race. Both races were not very big, but it is still intimidating if you have never ran one. I think the most intimidating thing about running races is the “unknown.” I wasn’t familiar with either course. I had never prepared myself for pacing. Basically, I have never trained for a race. Life gets busy and exercise goes on the back burner. After each race, I have realized what I could have done differently. With the first race, I had no idea what distance I was at, so I didn’t know when the race was over. I started to speed up for the last 50 feet. For this race, I didn’t know the course. It started out all uphill, so I paced myself. I kept feeling like I needed to continue to pace myself and that another hill was coming. If I would have known the rest of the race was downhill, I would have picked it up sooner.
What is the point of all this? I think that sometimes in life we are afraid to try new things for one of two reasons (or both): 1. fear of failure & 2. fear of the unknown. I kept thinking to myself what if I have to walk? What if I can’t finish? Either way, guess what? I would live. 🙂 Who cares if either happened- I tried. I gained experience in both instances and am more prepared for next race. No one succeeded in life without trying and failing.
So the next time you set a goal to try something knew or someone “pushes” you to try something you thought you couldn’t do, try it. You may surprise yourself. In the first race, I won 1st place out of my age division (5 year division), and in the second race, I won 3rd place in my age division (10 year division). I’m definitely not an expert runner. These were two small races, but I surprised myself. Set your next goal or dare to try something new…surprise yourself. I would love to hear about it!
Have a great 4th!
Here is a picture after the race and with our medals. I have a phone clip on my right hip, so ignore the belly! No baby hump! Those days are done.

Move forward openly with curiosity and amusement with your passions rather than demands and hopes. Don’t expect it to go as planned but know that the unplanned may lead to the best later. The best is yet to come
http://erikconover.com/2014/07/04/the-best-is-yet-to-come/
Erik
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I love it!
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🙂
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I completely agree :).
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