That Feeling When...

In high school, my careers class teacher had us create a "Life Bucket List". This is something everyone does at one point or another. You create a "Bucket List" in your head of all the things you want to accomplish in life. The list tends to grow and grow because there are so many things you want to do in life. I remember creating this list in high school and looking back at it, some of the things were a very in the moment adventure (like "Meet the Jonas Brothers", even though I wouldn't mind that still...) and some were things I wanted to accomplish at some point much later in life.

                

One of the things I thought I would never be able to cross off is something I did over the weekend, Run a Marathon. Well, I actually ran a half marathon, but that crosses it off the list in my book! Like I mentioned in a previous post (Link Here!!), I was never really a runner growing up. I played every sport in the book, but they were never sports where I was running consistently for 2 1/2 hours. They were sports where strategy and teamwork came into play. Was there running? Of course! But, I never disciplined myself to run outside of our scheduled practices. When I made the commitment to a Half Marathon, I knew discipline had to come into play. This meant eating healthy and running as much as a can during a week or regular work. It was not an easy journey at all.

The training was very hard towards the end, but I was determined. I wasn't thinking of it as something to cross off my "Bucket List", but more as something I can say I did in life. This week I ran the Brooklyn Rock n Roll Half Marathon, and I could not be more proud of myself. While running it, I thought the run was never going to end and at some points I wanted to stop. It was so difficult to keep going at about mile 9/10, but I knew it was almost over and I knew how close I was to the finish line. My mom came to cheer me on and I knew Ryan was at the finish line, so there was clear motivation to keep on trucking. When that last quarter mile finally reached, I have never sprinted so hard and it was just as rewarding as I expected it to feel. 13.1 miles. I honestly thought I would never say I ran that, BUT now I officially have one less thing on that "Life Bucket List" to worry about. So, for anyone who thinks they can't do it or is thinking about it, I say go for it! You will not regret working towards this and the feeling after is worth all they talk about

& what's even more surprising??? I think I would do it again!