Ipuna Black

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.