Stop Saying I Wish and Start Saying I DID!

So here it is, the moment you have all been waiting for....(drum roll please) the play by play from Sunday's "race."  So where do I start? Naturally I have no idea where to start because I feel like I say a million things but never get my point across...

So as you may or may not know I got into the city on Saturday after work, some time around 4pm or 4:30.  I got all checked in, took my cooler upstairs and no fridge!  For $500 a night plus parking I was a little heated to say the least.  Well I got my fridge and jumped in the shower because I had to hop on the subway and meet Melissa for our carb loaded dinner.  I gave you most of the story about my city slicker "skills" but in case you missed it, I bought $20 worth of subway tokens to later find out I only needed two and I stuck out like a sore thumb haha!  I made it to temple campus and had a nice pasta dinner before I returned to my hotel room for the night.

So Sunday morning arrives and I am like a kid on Christmas morning.  I can't wait to get up and get going!  I rolled out of bed and laid out all my clothes for the race.  I went to grab my breakfast that I had prepared because there was no way I was going to eat the hotel breakfast.  Side note I try to prepare all my meals and cook all my own food because it is huge during this transformation and journey.  Well my breakfast way frozen from the stupid fridge the front desk sent up.  So I some how choked down my frozen protein pancakes and drank my cup off coffee and then it was back to the subway to get to the race.  The subway ride was free with my bib so I didn't need one of the 17 tokens I had in my bag...

I got to the course and found Melissa and it was just a waiting game from there.  We were standing around and just waiting to get going and for some reason I was pretty calm relatively speaking.  Aside from the fact that I was standing at my FIRST starting carol for my FIRST race, I was pretty calm and just ready to get going.  I did some dynamic stretching and cued up my tunes and I was ready to roll.  Then the commotion started...people yelling, clapping and getting all kinds of excited.  Our coral started to move up and Melissa looked at me and said "Well...you ready?!?!"  The only thing I could think to say was "As ready as I could be."  Hahaha how lame is that?!?! We got to the line and "Sweet Caroline" was blasting through the speakers, here we go!

And off we went! We hit our first mile somewhere around 9:30 and I was hyped.  I had been told my first mile was going to take upwards of 12:00 due to the amount of people.  From there we just kept trucking.  Hitting just about every water station we could.  Before I knew it we were at the Temple campus and we got some love from Melissa's roommate and John(the guy who's spot I took, I was a little surprised her boyfriend wasn't in the group to cheer her on though).  We were in the zone and I was loving every second of it.  The amount of energy throughout this race was incredible.  The people who lined the course were AMAZING!!  They were high-fiving and cheering you along every step of the way.  Something that is still sitting with me came around mile 5.  My phone beeped for a text and I am thinking to myself what the heck is this?!?!  It was a text from one of my friends, the first and only that I got that day.  She wished me good luck and said she hoped I was had a good race day.  This gave me an incredible sense of energy.

After mile 5 hit, I was just about in my zone and I knew I was going to finish.  I wanted to hit my time of 1:30:00 so bad but Melissa did not want to push her knee which I completely understood.  We hit the CVS on broad street and the crowd was a little more thin than I thought...then it hit me.....I was going to see my family!  Well we approached mile marker 9 and I think the entire city of Philadelphia could hear my mother screaming.  I looked over on to the side walk and I could see her jumping as high as she could, screaming, clapping and grinning ear to ear.  Everyone was there to cheer on that last mile.  I gave my mother a high five and started to get tears in my eyes(thank god I had sunglasses on).  She was so proud and I could see it shinning through.  It was 8 months of hard work, sweat, pressure, fight, everything summed up into one powerful, magnificent moment that I could never put into words.  It meant the world to me to get that high five at the start of that final mile.  She got it....

Here I am, post high five from mom, getting ready to crush my final mile.  Glad you couldn't see the tears.

It was on the last mile and we crushed it!!  It was our fastest mile of the race and it felt awesome.  I threw my arms up as I crossed the finish, or at least it felt that way in my head.  WE DID IT!!!  It was into the navy yard to collect our medals and get some much needed food.  We grabbed out stuff and stretched out a little bit.

Here is a picture of Melissa and I, go figure I could release the grip on my soft pretzel to put it down for the pic!  From there we stretched a little more and headed for the subway to start our journey home.

One of the last things I will share with you all is this picture of Melissa that my grandfather snagged.

The smile on her face just about says it all for the entire day.  Let me just tell you that this chick was absolutely amazing from start to finish.  She kept me going and I think I did the same for her.  At one point she looked at me and said "I never thought you would be doing this let alone be the one pushing us to run faster!"  She was simply amazing through the entire thing and I can't thank her enough.  I am so thankful to have a friend like her in my life and I couldn't ask for a better one!

The last thing I will share branches off of Melissa's comment.  I used to be that person who would sit and wait and wish.  I always wished I was someone else, or had the courage to do something that someone else was doing.  I thought about it today and the reason I wore my medal all day yesterday was because somewhere along the line someone looked at me and thought, man he did The Broad Street Run, I wish I could do that.  My final thought to you is STOP!!  Stop saying I wish and start saying I did.  I never thought in a million years that I would be doing something so amazing, but that high five from mom and crossing that finish line were the two most rewarding things I have ever received.  Put your mind to something, go out, and get it DONE!!  The only person holding you back from what you want is YOU!   It doesn't have to be a race, or a tri, or anything athletic for that matter.  My goal is to reach as many people as I possibly can and show them that anything you want, is possible.....

Thank you to everyone who reads this and I hope you enjoy.

All for now....

Keep FSU and Do It For Yourself