Thing #1: I Can Actually Do This

When I was in high school, both of my brothers exhibited great natural ability at running. They presumably inherited it from my dad. I however, inherited his ability to sing, his height, and my mother's wide hips and asthma. Nevertheless, I decided that since my brothers were already dragging the entire family to Cross Country meets every Saturday, I might as well skip gym class and get a quarter credit by running with them.

Here's a quick summary:

I sucked.

No, really. My first race was around 37 minutes for a 5k, and I had to stop and walk a lot. I can't remember if I came in last that time, but I think in at least one race that season, I did. Usually I escaped utter humiliation by coming in about third from the end. Even my only senior female teammate would finish her practice, and come back to run beside me, saying, "Come on, Katie! You can do this! Don't stop running! No don't walk; you don't have to! Just keep moving!"

My PR by the end of the season was around 34 minutes. I'd been running from August to November, and I had barely improved. And my knees had bothered me enough to knock me out of at least one race. Coach said he would have let me letter if I'd broken 30 minutes, but that was ludicrous.

Eight years later, I hit the ellipticals at the gym in the fall of 2010. By early spring, I was going to the local bike path. A year after that, I had an official asthma test done - it was positive, and they handed me an inhaler.

This spring, my company hosted a 5k. I was incredibly close to 30 minutes. Two weeks after that was my high school's family 5k.

I trained for 2 weeks, constantly pushing myself harder just to shave 40 seconds off my time, and getting a sinus infection I didn't know about until after the race.

I still shaved about a minute twenty off my time.

Nine and a half years after my senior Cross Country season, I ran a 5k - at my high school, finishing on my high school track, right behind my coach's wife, with a sinus infection I didn't know about - in 29:17.

I don't think think that's the official result time. But it's the time I saw as I crossed the line. And as I tasted acidity in my mouth, I knew I had accomplished something great.

When I do things like this, it really makes me wonder what I can't do if I just put my mind to it.