To the man in the Safelite van this morning. Yes, you that passed a runner on May Street between The Terrace and Oak Hill......yes you, the one that flung your hand out the window to give me the thumbs up and then proceeded to yell, "You got this girl, keep going". I thank you.
When I was first starting to run, there was a man and his dog on the battlefield that I saw almost every time I ran. He encouraged me everytime. He was there the day that I completed my first ever 20 minutes straight of running. (Yes, he just happened to be at the exact spot that I stopped running to begin my cool down.) His simple words encouraged me and I learned to appreciate that. At one point when I was training for the Cooper River Bridge Run (the one that I ended up walking because I hurt my foot a week or so before the run) I had a few people that randomly made encouraging comments as I ran by. It boosted me up and made me run on. Angels in disguise maybe.
Somewhere along the way recently, I lost sight of that. Oh there have been some people that have made comments but I didn't 'hear' them. Oh, my ears heard them but I was running with my then running partner (yup the same one that wouldn't run beside me but instead always ran 5 feet in front of me...it's not wonder my running was miserable.....why did it take me so long to realize that it was unhealthy?) and she would also grouse and growl about how 'these guys just say stuff because they can't keep there eyes off of me" and stuff like that. She would growl and belly ache. I never bought into that belief but just kept my mouth shut because it was easier to let her think she was all that than try to make her realize that she was allowing blessings to pass her by. And honestly, because I hung out with her and was surrounded by that mentality, I lost site of the beauty of those blessings.
Mr. Safelite today reminded me. He reminded me that comments and words of encouragement are to be treasured.
Want to know what else Mr. Safelites words did for me? When he yelled out at me, I was about 3/4 of a mile into my run. I have been consistently running my first mile to mile and a half with no stops and then stopping to walk maybe once a mile from there on out for the rest of my run. Today, after his words, I was determined to run every step of my 3.5 miles. I only stopped to cross roads/wait for traffic and I stopped to walk once to check my mileage. His words spurred me on to complete a fabulous run. A slow but might run. And yes, I'm still suffering from this chest congestion ickiness. ......imagine what I could have done if I was feeling spectacular!!!!!
My weight. I showed a gain of a half pound this week. I'm not surprised. Chinese Buffet, Pizza, free for all salad bar, free pizza delivered to work. Yeah, I'm not surprised. However, I know what I did and I'm planning on fixing it!
