I'm a Stallion!

So as you might know, I'm training for a 1/2 marathon that I'm going to run with my sister Chelsie in Soda Springs in October. I started training for the Top of Utah Half Marathon back in May, but things kept coming up like vacations, school, studying for tests, no motivation (which came all too often) and that made it hard to make time to run. SO Chelsie found one in October that I can run with her and I'm stoked for it.

Being stoked for running is a MIRACLE because you know what? Running is hard! I used to think running a mile was the HARDEST thing in the world! Every fall in grade school when the Presidential Fitness Mile came up, I could just picture myself gasping for air in my stirrup stretch pants and my ginormous pink bifocals, laying on the side of the track... left for dead. Was I a dramatic child? Maybe a little.

Once I hit high school my best friend Suzanne (who was on the cross country team) convinced me I could totally run as far as I wanted and that it was possible. She would run with me and teach me techniques for breathing and it helped me to feel more comfortable with running. I never thought it was fun. I never thought it felt good, but now that I'm a wanna-be runner, I feel like those little bits of advice from 3-4 years ago help me a lot now.

I've been reading a lot of books and blogs about running lately that have seriously made me a lot more motivated to run and they've been SO inspiring to me. People are SO amazing! They prove that anyone can do hard things. They just have to be willing to do them! Once I start reading something it makes me want to pull my hair up and throw on some running shoes (but usually I just stay sitting at my table eating my life cereal and I am content).

In a lot of the articles or books I've been reading, a lot of runners talk about their "mantra", aka, what their running motto is. This morning as I was running with my sister Andrea, I was thinking about my mantra and decided it could be what I always tell myself when I start to feel tired. That being, "You're a Stallion!" This helps me to get going when I start slowing down. I decided this would be my mantra when Andrea left me in the dirt in the last leg of our run... because I wanted to walk for a minute. Then I quickly walked past this older woman walking her dog who looked at me like 'you do know she is beating you right?' Then I saw the USU cross country team running toward me in all of their glory (seriously, they looked amazing!) and I thought, 'what are you doing woman?!! These people are probably running 100 miles today and you can't run another couple of blocks? You are a stallion! Come on!' That is when I decided to kick it into gear and to sprint to the end. I did feel like a stallion and I decided it totally worked for me to say that. I caught up to Andrea and we walked up that nasty hill on 6th East out of the island. Then Andrea wanted to be a show off and ran the rest of the way to her house (a few more blocks) so I ran a block with her and walked one more to my apartment. She is the true stallion. I just have ambitions to be one. I'm so glad she lets me run with her! She makes me such a better runner and it's so great to have someone pacing me every step of the way and encouraging me. She is the BEST!

I can honestly say I'm starting to enjoy running and it truly is a miracle. It is the perfect way to start a day!