DECISION NOT TO GIVE UP
Maybe not 1996 in
Atlanta because they do not have junior-junior Olympics, but possibly Sydney
2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 or London 2012. Running in the Olympics
and representing my country (Kenya) has always been one of my hearts desire and
life’s goal that I have unfortunately been unable to obtain.
Coming from a background of athletes
(having a mother for a track star and father for a soccer star), I believed it
was an innate notion to be an athlete, and I became an athlete in my own
rights, blessed with the speed and endurance but was content with being a tad
bit above average because I figured if I pushed myself to be great, I no doubt would have made it but at the risk of possibly not enjoying myself anymore. I was
blessed to have a trainer who qualified for and ran the Boston Marathon on
numerous occasions, a feat that is achieved by a few and takes a mentally tough
runner to get to the point of running past the “wall” and pushing to the end.
Today, I have reignited that goal of
running the Boston Marathon hopefully in April 2014.
I know myself to be resilient,
through my running years I have had to bounce back from both physical and
emotional pain especially after major injuries or surgeries that sidelined me
for what seemed like eternity. Some people live, eat, breathe music….as for me running became part of my life, bouncing
back was not always easy but everything was put back into perspective knowing
that there is another immediate goal ahead that needed to be accomplished and
not just accomplished but done so successfully.
I have asked myself many times if I
am able to remain focused on the race even especially when approaching the last
miles in a race, the last stretch on a run when every muscle in my body is
screaming for me to quit, stop and throw in the towel. At times when I run, I
cannot help but ask myself what I am getting myself into…why did I decide to
run the full marathon instead of the half but I have fostered my ability to
focus in the face of pain, aches, fear, anxiety, self-doubt and more often than
not the unexpected…how to remain focused when a race day prediction of
comfortable weather erupts into a stormy day of thunder, lightening and rain so
loud one could hardly hear themselves think…to run and COMPLETE the
race, FOCUS becomes the mantra to
weather all the storms both literally and figuratively that life may throw my
way.
When I think of life, I think of it
as a marathon. We are all in this race called LIFE and it is up to us to live
the best lives we can and live every day to the fullest and find and do
something we are passionate about because we only live ONCE!! Make your life
count today...I know I am constantly challenging myself to be not just above
average but SUPERIOR in every aspect of my life...you should
do too:)
I have chosen to strive to create a
future WITHOUT breast cancer and oppression of women...what do you choose?
09/30/12
Celebrating breast cancer survivors
Hosted by Loma Linda Cancer Center & Department of Plastic Surgery
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