Inspiration Mondays: Registration

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? -Vincent Van Gogh
In 1999, I finished my Bachelor of Education and left for a job in England on the day before my graduation. I thought I was pretty brave then. I've never been afraid to try new things.

Or so I thought.

Back then, I weighed more than 300 pounds. I don't know exactly how much I weighed, because the only scale I would get onto was the one I had at home, and it only went up to 300. And that was that. I knew I was fat. I knew I was unacceptable.

And I knew it was my fault.

When I moved away from home and was forced to make my own food and use public transport in a big, busy, bustling city, the weirdest thing happened:  I lost weight. A lot of weight. All the clothing I brought with me no longer fit.  And I thought I was finished with the weight struggle.

I was wrong about that.

Over the past few months, I've been training a lot... exercise every single day, walking, jogging, strength training, circuits, swimming... and the original goal was to drop some more weight so that I could lower my blood pressure. I thought I'd just drop about twenty pounds and be done with it. And then I looked it up, and I figured that I'd need to drop a lot more than that if I wanted to maintain a healthy body. So, I amped it up, and kept losing more.

And then I had the crazy idea that I'd train for a 10K run in September. Heck, it's good to have goals, right? I thought I'd be at my goal weight by then as well.

So, I've been training for that, and I managed to run about 4K this weekend. Not bad. I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Not long before I can really push for 10K.

I was told today that the trail ends uphill, on gravel, no less. I don't know whose dumb idea that was, but they're unlikely to change that anytime soon. Hmm. That's not going to be easy. I briefly considered giving up, that what my well-meaning friends told me was true: that my goals for September were unrealistic. I should settle for a conservative goal so that I wouldn't be disappointed if I didn't reach it. I looked up the registration page for the 10K event and stared at it for a few minutes.

Then, I paged back through my Facebook page and found a video a friend posted this weekend. The following is the extended version:


And so yeah, I'm filling in the form right now. And I'm going to keep on keeping on. And I know that I can't run 10K up a gravel hill right now...

But I will sometime. And that's all that matters. Thanks, y'all. I'm off to Zumba class.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Thank you for putting this video on your blog. How amazing is that story. Where there is a will, there is a way.
YarnKettle said…
I am so proud for you! Way to go, if you do not sign up you will never run it . You just made the first of many steps. Well you made the first step a while back, but still. Even if you finish walking it will still be a win. Who knows how many other people you will inspire.
Go Adriene Go!
AdrieneJ said…
Thanks, YK. That means a lot to me to know that someone across the continent is proud of me!
AdrieneJ said…
Yes, there is! I'm hoping that people who have been living with pain for so long can be inspired by the knowledge that it doesn't have to be like that forever!
Anonymous said…
well now I' m crying ...