“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.” ~Arthur C. Clarke
“Respond to every call that excites your spirit.” ~Rumi
I spent my Memorial Day weekend running across Georgia. Earlier this month my best friend Scott Rigsby asked me if I wanted to join a relay team to benefit the House of Heros. When he approached me with this I immediately thought he was out of his mind because my hip has still been jacked up and I promised myself I would rest it. I can always depend on him to tell me if it’s a good thing so he advised me that it was for an excellent benefit and I would have fun. So I said what the heck I am in!
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” -Milton Berle
The race was to begin in Columbus Georgia and we were all to be there on Friday morning. I get to the location Friday and met everyone. Although I knew one of the girls that was on the team with me which I had gotten to know through an old boyfriend I had a long time ago. I didn’t know any of the other runners going with us. When we get there we all had plans to go to a Natural Medicine Clinic that was a sponsor of our team and get a B-12 shot and that was so much fun for us all.. We all had a blast at the clinic getting our shots and then we headed up the road in the RV. We were touring the distance and places we would be running…
As we left out in the RV, Kelly introduced me to her team. She has been at a speaking event I have done before but I was so shook up at that one I was nothing but a ball of tears. She announced me and asked me on the spot to share my story with everyone. I glanced around and took a deep breath and started speaking. I still get teary eyed when I talk of that time in my life but the people I was surrounded by I could feel were good people and not there to knock me down… So I shared my story, held back my tears and we were on our way…
“Owning our story and loving ourselves through the process is the bravest thing we will ever do.” ~Brene Brown
My first few legs of the race were fairly short. But the blistering hot Georgia sun was brutal, and the humidity made it even worse. I am used to running in this type of weather so the first few legs were no prob at all. Then the next few legs came around with little sleep and little food in my stomach so times began to get harder… I pressed on though… It was nice waking up and running in a new location each day. I feel some days I have ran in a lot of different areas in this world but I have failed to look at the beauty of my own state. Even if it was 3 am when I was running at least I got to encounter the frogs on the road or hearing the buzzing of all the insects around me. It was amazing to me and I didn’t let the pain of my hip bother me I simply took it easy and I made sure to let Kelly know when I signed up that it was pretty beat up so I wouldn’t be as fast as I have been in my past….
When we would stop in different locations everyone would support all the other teams running by hooping and hollering by the road. And you know me I was mingling around chit chatting and laughing with people and getting photos of the event. We got to the finish of this race and I was thrilled to get a text from my buddy Scott Rigsby. His text said he would be at the finish line with a gift for me and was proud of me…
At the award ceremony we were all pretty much spent! As they were giving out awards my name was called! I nearly flipped out…. Then they said you get the award for worse blistered feet for this journey I proudly accepted that award because I had shed my shoes by that point and my feet were beyond terrible… Then as we all sat and watched and listened the announcer states that with all the relay teams involved in this race we all had raised over $120,000 for the House of Hero’s. The crowd went wild and at that moment I realized all the heat and lack of sleep and my gosh the blisters on my feet were totally worth all this running… Not to mention we had a freakin blast doing it all and I met some awesome individuals… I can proudly say now that I ran 29.7 miles over our beautiful state in 2 days and enjoyed every minute of it…
