A Taste of Spring

Picture it! Saginaw. 71 degrees. In March. Not a cloud in the sky. It was a perfect day! After work, Rhiannon and I decided that it was the perfect day to walk the path by the river behind our house. This is the path that Rhiannon has walked every year with our friend Dani (and her dog, Artemis). I have never been on this path, again, I never walked unless I had to. The route that Rhiannon and Dani take is a little over 3 miles, virtually a 5k. We all know I am not there yet...so we modified the walk and started where the trail actually starts.

We walked for a while and I kept looking at landmarks around me to see when I wanted to turn around to walk back. There was a big rock on the side of the path and I told myself when we got there, I'd say I was ready to turn around. But we got to the rock, and I wasn't ready to stop. We passed the tree that I just knew I would be ready to turn at. Then we came to the first underpass. We stopped to drink some water and I decided that this was a good place to turn around. When we got back to the car, I checked to see how far we walked and realized that we had gone just over a mile, 1.07 to be exact. This was my first official mile of this journey! I wasn't overly tired, I wasn't in a lot of pain, I wasn't struggling to breathe. It felt incredible!

When Rhiannon and I got home, we were putting our stats in our tracker and realized that we did that mile in 25 minutes. Which is a long mile, I understand, but it is a great start. I looked up how long you have to finish the NYC marathon, and as long as you are crossing the finish line by 10pm, you get a medal and are considered an official finisher. The last wave of runners leaves at 10am. So that is a 12 hour time frame. In doing the math, with a 25 minute mile, I would finish the marathon in just under 11 hours.

This week, I was anxious about the marathon and if I think it is a good idea or if it is too big of a feat for me. I go back and forth with this a lot. But learning that with a 25 minute mile, I would still be considered an OFFICIAL FINISHER, this gave me so much motivation to keep going. Especially because over the course of 5 years, I will only get strong and faster. So that 11 hour finishing time will get smaller. That mile will get quicker. And I will complete this journey!

Thank you to all of you who take the time to read these posts, to ask how things are going, and who are so supportive of this path I am on. I could not do this without your love and support!

For now, the winter weather is back, there is snow on the horizon and the wind is howling. Here is hoping that we are able to get back on the walking trail in the sunny, warm weather soon, but until then stay warm!

#JoyfulJourneyHappyHeart