Finish Line

Posted by Ashley:
I’m not sure what sparked it…but about 3 months ago I decided I wanted to be a runner. I’ve always admired runners – their perseverance, their endurance, their rock hard abs. But anyone who knows me well, knows that I hate to run. I quit high school track after one season. I complained my way through basketball hell week. I don’t think I had ever run more than a mile in my life. But…I was feeling a little stuck in a rut and a little flabby around the middle and so I decided to take a ginormous step out of my sedentary comfort zone…and run. I had been going off and on to a free bootcamp for women and when I heard the coach was putting together a running team to train for the Monument Ave 10k, I was all in (10k = 6.2 miles - I was a little ambitious). She gave us a workout schedule to do on our own during the week but on Saturdays we met at 9am and ran as a group. The first week, we did 1 mile and I thought I was going to pass out…I barely made it to the end, but I ran the whole thing under 15 minutes and I was so proud of myself. The weeks passed by and I forced myself to get out of bed every Saturday whether I wanted to or not, whether it was 20 degrees or 50 degrees, whether my body ached and knees were strained…I went. I didn’t want to give up and I knew that at the end I would feel a huge sense of accomplishment. I knew that if I finished the 10k, I would win. I would win back my sense of control over my body.

Lining Up before the race...people dressed in all kinds of crazy costumes.

Today was race day. I lined up with over 40,000 other ambitious people on the streets of Richmond to participate in what’s been ranked one of the top ten races in the country. I was so nervous, but luckily I had one of my running partners from the training group right there with me. We were able to pace ourselves by watching each other. The first 3 miles were golden. Mile 4 was the longest mile of my life. I did what Jessica told me to do and I pictured her at the finish line with a plate of orange slices and a big smile. And I imagined my parents on the sideline cheering me on. That got me to mile 5.5. Then I almost gave up. My knees started locking and my pace was slowing…my running partner was way ahead of me. If it wasn’t for the finish line banner that I could finally see in the distance, I would have started walking. I made it to the end, sweaty and weak with exhaustion and a man said with major enthusiasm, “You ran a 10k this morning!!” I was too out of breath to say anything back but I nodded…why yes, yes I did. 


what big goals have you accomplished lately?