About a month ago I made the choice to run in the annual rite of spring 10k race, the temperature hovered around freezing with some bizarre mixture of rain/sleet/hail/snow falling, and the winds were gusting to 20 miles an hour. Needless to say my running partner and I spoke little during the run so I had plenty of time to think and my thoughts went something like this:
“Who does this? Why am I doing this? Is that hail? Is that person seriously wearing shorts?”
After a few (very little) hills that seemed like the same (very big) ones I ran in SF, my thoughts continued along these lines….
“Did I really choose to this? What are my options here? Can I give up? What would I do? Can I sit down hang out on this incredibly breezy bridge with this crap pelting me?”
I finally caught my breath and realized how I was holding myself back. I found myself thinking…
“Wait I can to this! I’ve made it through worse! Instead of fighting it, just give in…let go!”
I was able to relax into my stride and although I almost tackled the well-meaning spectator who was shouting “half mile left” (which sounded like you have 20 miles left), I happily survived. I walked away from the whole wet experience reflecting on other times in my life where I sometimes feel like giving up. Giving up on relationships, house renovations, parenting, my professional life. Instead of fighting with myself I need to remember to get out of my own way. Inevitably when I give in and let go life works out as it should. The best reinforcement of this was when I looked up the race results and found I’d run at my fastest pace ever!
So where can you give in...instead of giving up? Where can you let go?
Hope you were able to celebrate all the amazing mothers in your life today.
P.S. It was my intention when I started this blog to post more often however I have made the choice to let life become wildly out of balance in order to finish some major house renovations. I'll be back soon and if not send someone to look for me in the abyss.
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