Motivational Monday

As I was leaving the gym tonight another lady says to me, "I'm going to run fast like you one day. I wanna be just like you. You make it look so easy." I smiled, of course, and told her thank you. Then I went on to tell her that sometimes it isn't easy even if it looks that way but that I push myself beyond those easy limits so I can reach my goals. I mentioned to her that she COULD run like me and told her to just start. I mentioned Couch to 5k to her and in the next sentence she says, "Ahh but I think I need to get some weight off first."

That's when I had the opportunity to tell her my story. I started running just a few short years ago weighing 237 lbs. I ran my first 5k in barely BARELY under 49 minutes. Today I was doing a 3 mile recovery run after running 18.5 miles on Saturday as part of my current marathon training plan. I told her that to date I have lost 82 lbs. One step at a time and a little (or a lot! lol) of slow weight loss took me from a 5k to having ran 4 half marathons and on my way to crossing the finish line of my first marathon.

She congratulated me on my success and I thanked her. We walked into the locker room together and talked some more. This was my opportuniy to reach out and help someone. So, I did. I told her that anytime she wants to just go out and try to let me know. She told me how her goal is to be able to run a 5k. She said she sees me every evening I am there and admires me. She said that I motivate her.

This made me feel really good about what I have done because she sees me as the successful girl I am today not as who I was 3 years ago when I started this journey. She is who I was just a few years ago. I told her I would love to help her reach her goals and she smiled and thanked me. I encouraged her to go for it.

Sometimes the very thing that motivates us that have been at this thing for a long time is the newbies who say we motivate and inspire them. Sure, I want to do great things for me and my body but knowing that other people look to me as motivation and inspiration makes me want to work that much harder. I've said it before how knowing that others look at my progress or success makes me want to work harder and make extra sure I don't fail. I don't want to fail myself but I definitely do not want to fail others.

What I want for others is for them to also work hard and reach for the dreams and goals. If I can inspire or motivate one person to work hard and reach their goals then I have succeeded beyond what I could ever imagine.

I have hard days. I have days when my runs and workouts feel effortless. The are times, even all these years later, that I lack motivation. Today I got an extra dose of motivation to keep moving forward.