Hello Steemit friends!
Yesterday my best friend and I ran a half marathon! This was my fourth and her first :)
She KILLED IT despite injuries AND flew all the way up here to hang out with me for a week and run this thing. There's absolutely no way I would've pushed as hard as I did if it weren't for her motivating me to give it my all.
And because of that, I finished with my best race time yet. I'm not naturally good at running. I started out not being able to run for more than 30 seconds without feeling like my heart was going to burst out of my chest.
The only difference between my current results and past results is time, effort, and dedication, not talent. This one reminds me of that everyday. My goal was to beat my last time of 2.04 and get a sub 2 hour half. With her fire behind me, I did it. š
āļø 1 hr. 56 min. PR
āļø8.52 min/mi pace
āļø PR'd the first 3 mi.
āļø3.08 min./mi improvement in 1 year
āļø Shaved a total of 41 minutes off the total time in 1 year
The picture below is from my first half marathon.
I remember the first time I went running. I tried out for the cross country team on the first day of high school and could barely get around the track four times without feeling like I was going to die. I was stopped in my tracks by an asthma attack and couldn't even finish the tryouts.
I hadn't had anything to eat that day so my mom took me to McDonalds and I ordered a Big Mac, a side of chicken nuggets, a large fries and a Coke. (This was way before I started learning about nutrition š). While scarfing the food down, I said "Mom, I'm going to learn how to run. I may not be on the team and that's okay but in going to teach myself how to run." And from that day forward, I ran. Every single day, for as far as I could go until my lungs gave out. When I first started, no joke, I could only run for a good 30 seconds to a minute before I felt like I was going to pass out.
Fast forward to now, 9 years later. Has it really been 9 years?! I have a whole new love and appreciation for running. I'm taking it seriously because it's saving me. Going on a run or a walk is sometimes the only thing that can get me out of bed. It's just one of those things that makes sense.
Going strong...
I love running so much and it has been huge in helping me with my depression. I want to sign up for more races but financially, this is not feasible at the moment. So I thought I would share my running story with all my steemit friends, and whatever funds I receive from upvotes, I will set aside for my next race! So it would be a steemit funded and backed race and my new goal is to get down to an average of 8.30 min./mi. :) If you want to help out, please upvote and resteem! Thank you so much :)
And thank you to my steemit friends for your support in encouraging me to continue posting and sharing :) 
