Set goals, achieve them, and feel great!

I love helping people achieve their goals, especially when they are fitness related!  About a year ago my friend Kelly set a goal to run a 10k.  I had the privilege of running with Kelly in her first 10k ever and I can honestly say the experience was just as rewarding for me as it was for her.

I encourage everyone to set a fitness goal, something that will challenge you and in the end give you a sense of accomplishment.  Below is the journey Kelly took to run her first 10k and her motivation to keep going.  My hope is that this story will motivate you to set goals of your own, achieve them, and be proud of yourself! 

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I started running because I thought I couldn’t. In high school, I dreaded the days we tested for the mile run. I would start out running but always ended up walking. I was the one coughing, red faced, and breathing hard.  Once, when I was a senior in high school, I thought I would make an effort at training for the mile. I wanted to run a mile and do it under the time required for “presidential”, the goal for physically fit students. However, bronchitis and probably a lot of self-doubt kept me from accomplishing that goal.

Last year, ten years after setting that goal, I finally decided that I would revisit my aspiration to run a mile under 8:15. I never thought about 5Ks or marathons. (I didn’t know how long a “k” was, let alone a 5K). Those were things for runners, which I, of course, was not.

I began running at the gym. Or more like run/walking at the gym, until that became running a half-mile, and then running a mile. And while I was at it, I did it just under 8:15. I was excited that I had achieved the goal of my youth but I also discovered that I actually enjoyed running. This led to new goals- what was one more mile? “Guess who just ran two miles straight?” I would text my boyfriend, Nick.

Around this time, I shared my new love of running with a classmate, Bridget, who was already an accomplished runner. She became my go-to person for running questions- shoes, pain, recovery, how long is a 5K (3.1 miles in case you’re wondering), those kinds of things.  I have to admit that I was intimidated by the idea of running with another person. Running with someone else meant acknowledging I was new and slow, and maybe I’d have to run faster! However, I put those insecurities aside and began to run with Bridget. Soon, we decided to run a race together, so my new goal became a 10K race. Five months after I couldn’t run a mile, I found myself lined up with Bridget, getting ready to run 6.2 of them. This would be a new achievement: running my longest distance yet and do it on record at a race. (My secret goals were to run the entire thing and not be last.)  I am proud to say that I achieved every goal that day. Bridget was there with me every step of the way and she supported me through the dry-air induced bloody nose and final uphill push. (And she wasn’t embarrassed when I dumped a cup of cold water on my head, leading to great post-race photos.) Running a 10K was amazing and I was hooked.  Of course, the natural progression was to set a new, bigger goal: a half-marathon (13.1 miles!).

Now I have to say, I never understood the appeal of running a half-marathon or a marathon, but after running the 10K, I wanted another goal. So, I began to train for a half-marathon and in September, I ran the Two Bear Half-Marathon in Whitefish. The only goal this time was to finish it. I ran for two hours and six minutes straight and crossed the finish line in a frenzy of emotion, simultaneously joyous and exhausted. “Guess who just finished a half-marathon!?” That’s right, the same girl who could barely run a mile.

Running encouraged me to become more confident in my abilities and myself. My next goal? The next natural progression- a full 26.2-mile marathon, a distance I never dreamed I could cover with my own two legs but with patience, training, and confidence, I know I will achieve it.