Thoughts on Boston

The Boston Marathon bombing happened the year I started running. At that point I didn’t really consider myself a runner. I definitely didn’t follow marathons. This year for the first time somehow I found myself googling results and reading profiles of the winners and tracking a few locals who I knew were running.

So many impressive stories came out of that windy, cold, rainy race this year! Des and the other top American women were such awesome examples of perseverance and hard work and dreams coming true. I also followed “Fat Girl Running” author Mirna Valerio as she posted of her own dreams.

All super inspiring! And it’s gotten me to thinking about my own goals. Way back when I started I had pretty simple goals – lose weight, be able to keep up with my kids. I later made a bigger list: run a 5k, run 5 miles, run a 10-minute mile, run for a full hour. I’ve checked off all those goals and more in the past five years. I’ve set new ones. Some have eluded me. I can honestly say the Boston Marathon has never even been a consideration. So what is my goal now? What am I shooting for? I feel like I spend every day trying to figure that out.

Since my “fitness journey” began I have crossed paths with so many other people who are also figuring out their own goals and making progress in many different ways, from getting to the Boston Marathon to raking in major dough selling shakes. I never wanted fitness to take over my life, and it definitely hasn’t. There are many ways I could improve … things I beat myself up about for not doing more successfully. But I also don’t want to quit or drop out of the game simply because I haven’t always given 100 percent. I see a lot of people who don’t ever sign up for the race because they feel like they won’t do it fast enough — and where’s the accomplishment in that?

So I keep making goals. They change and evolve. I don’t always achieve them.

This year at least in part it’s to run more often, consistently and farther: more miles versus faster ones. I am signed up for a half in May and for an endurance run in July. But I feel like the goals closest to my heart don’t necessarily have to do with running at all. I want to say yes to more things, experience all that I can and include my family whenever possible. My boys are now doing rock climbing, which I also tried for the first time. With warmer weather kayak/canoeing and backpacking season is coming I want to get out on the river in new spots and backpack with my family, truly backpack, for the first time. With my youngest of three boys turning 4 next week, I feel like I’m standing at the starting line of countless new possibilities.

I accidentally ran across a book at the library that outlines different trips along the Potomac River. We’d done a few of the chapters with regularity over the past years and my husband and I are very excited about tackling as much as we can of the rest this year. We’ve looked at a few other trails we might be able to do on bikes, too.

Long story short I am not the personality or physique to become a top runner and I know that. I enjoy just the doing, just crossing the finish line, just trying. And after Boston Marathon week, I needed to take a moment to remind myself that I’m actually right where I want to be and with more patience and more work, I can go wherever I want to go from here.