The Journey Through My Marathon

Well, as of right now, I feel awful. I can’t walk because my muscles are like noodles, places are sore that I didn’t even know I had places, and I have come down with the viral plague.

I think everyone expects you to feel like a whole new person after racing in something like this, but that’s the exact opposite of how I feel. I have never felt more like me.

I was born to run. Ever since I started competitively running six years ago I started to become me. I saw what made me happy. The high you get when you have a good training run is better than any high your body or anything can stimulate. Finding new calluses on my feet is like Christmas morning, because it just shows that I have been working harder than usual. Some girls love Forever 21, I love Runner’s Roost. Running has always been me.

Everyone has a defining moments in their life when they know they are in the right place. When you pick a university, when you get your first big kid job, when you find your soul mate, and this was one of those moments for me, but this was bigger. It made me realize that all the blood, sweat, tears, sunburns, blisters, scrapes and long runs compiled into true happiness.

For the first time in my life I depended on no one but myself to finish that race. Yes, I had support from the most amazing people in my life every 4 miles, but it came down to myself mentally and physically believing that I could run 26.2 miles, and that I did. I relied on self motivation, self determination, and most of all self love to get through the hardest race I have ever run.

So, runners will say that when they finish a marathon they feel like a whole new person, but only true runners will finish even more themselves than they were 26.2 miles earlier.