My friend posted information about a 5K celebrating the anniversary of Apollo 11. Apollo’s 50th anniversary has brought a lot of events to the Space Coast that include food, concerts, and an 11K and a 5K. Food and concerts would typically be my go-to for fun and not a 5K, but b
- It is FUN to see people WIN! My favorite part was cheering on the 11K runners. The first runner came in running a 6-minute mile with a handful of others not far behind. I found myself studying each runner and in some strange way wondering what they were feeling emotionally and physically. (I found out that a few of them must have felt great because I watched them line up for the 5k about 45 minutes later. What…?) But seriously, all too often we get caught up in winning to beat others that we don’t take the time to celebrate those that are winning around us. I recommend it! I left very inspired by everyone at the race.
- Your self-talk will make you or break you. That last mile was B-R-U-T-A-L. Killer. I had left my friends and picked up my pace, jogged a little, and was pushing through. I turned around to look at my friends and they waved me on, so I dropped the guilt and moved quicker. To be truthful, I really (REALLY!) didn’t want to finish behind the guy with the cane. I found myself saying things like, this is hard, it is so hot out, omg why did I sign up for this and it continued to feel hard. Then I considered what I know to be true as a coach and told myself things like, look at you and how far you’ve gone, you’re almost there, you are so strong Sarah… and guess what? It worked. I did get heckled by the DJ to “finish strong” as I was approaching the finish line for walking through it, but meh… I finished strong in my head. The strength in my self-talk is what my “finish strong” looked like.
- You are never too old to go after what you want. I wouldn’t say that I was dreading turning 47, but I was thinking about how much closer I am to 50. 50 was 30 years ago for some of the runners that crossed the finish line. I noticed that those that finished that were older had huge smiles on their faces. It’s possible that the accomplishment at an older age for some is bigger than for the 7-year old that finished with his dad. Maybe not, but that is what I imagined. In the past year, I have traveled by myself more than ever, started a business, gone to two K-pop concerts (and danced and sang my ass off), and many other firsts. I have moments where I think that I’m too old to do that… and then I remember that I can do whatever I want at whatever age I want to.
- Go for it, even if it isn’t perfect or all planned out. This was probably the biggest learning from the 5k. I’m a planner. I’m a recovering perfectionist. I get caught up in if it’s not perfect it will fail. Well, guess what? I was wrong! I didn’t train. I didn’t run the whole thing, in fact, I barely ran. It was ugly at some points. I didn’t fail AND I was successful. I finished. That’s all I wanted to do – finish. Without looking backward, because it doesn’t do us any good… look forward and consider what are goals or dreams that you want to achieve that you can start today? Remember, it doesn’t need to be perfect.
- You’re more capable than you give yourself credit. I had many moments that I considered texting my friends and saying that I couldn’t go to the race for some reason or another. The morning of, I was a little crabby in thinking about all of the bad stuff – heat, out of shape, tired, and anything else that I could come up with. But, it would not have sat right with me, so I went. Although I was energized by the runners finishing, prior to that I was still telling myself all the reasons this was a bad idea. Something switched in my perspective when the runners started crossing. I started asking
myself, if them… why not me?
So… why not you?