Today
Today it is Wednesday. My alarm went off at 4:30 AM as it always does. I planned to #NP_justshowup to PR day. Excuses were running rampant in my head. I have had a long 2 weeks of travel for work…. I haven’t been keeping my nutrition or fitness on track… My legs feel like lead… Then I shut off my brain, and just did it on autopilot, sleeping in my workout cloths definitely helps. I showed up and November Project delivered x1,000!
Every PR day I remember how this all started. It was April 2015 when I ran into my husband’s friend Myles Fennon on the promenade in Carl Schurz Park on Manhattan’s east side. I was 30 lbs. heavier. My 2 small children were out running me and I was constantly beating myself up because I used to run marathons. Running had been my constant and now I was starting over from nothing. As I was slogging out a measly 1.5 mile run, I saw Myles surrounded by a group of people, that seemed to be workout buddies or something, and they were hugging each other, instead of high-fives. Myles stopped me and invited me to join in to this thing called November Project. That’s when it started.
You can’t finish what you don’t start
It took me 2 weeks of giving excuses, to finally get off the sidelines and out the door. It was 5:28 AM during the first week of May 2015, which meant PR day. PR day is a “race” workout. You run the same 8 loop course, and try to beat your own time. My goal that day, finish the 8 loops before the 40 min cut off with my dignity and smile in tacked. This was fairly easy as everyone was so positive, especially at that hour. I remember when I was starting the 8th loop everyone else was finished already, yet they cheered as if there were a whole group of us still running.
It takes more courage to finish last than first, or at least that’s what I told myself.
I kept coming back week after week, month after month. My goal was simple, each PR day knock a second or two off my time. Weekend are tough to do many races. Wednesdays, now that is something I can consistently do! What started as a simple goal, became something huge for me!
Wednesday became my ‘reset day.’ It was my weekly dose of unfiltered positivity. I connected with the most diverse and amazing group who support each other. This group has been my constant in a year of extreme changes, leaving one job, starting another, leaving the city after 12 year for the ‘burbs. Through it all my alarm goes off on Wednesdays and I get myself to the 5:28 group, because they are that awesome! I even got my father to join in to the #NO_Woo tribe.
You won’t know what you can do unless you #justshowup
Today I was awarded the Positivity award, I am humbled by it. I have set simple, small goals, and crushed them, 13 PRs since I started. Knocking almost 7:30 off of my first time. How do I know? I write down my time like a geek each week. I’m a happy, positive, running geek. Thank you November Project for being here, you over deliver!
Friday:
6:28 at the East River Park Amphitheatre
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