Take Heart - You're Gonna Make It

I ran another race this weekend. This one has a kind of tongue-in-cheek theme.

It's full of unexpected takes on things that happen at traditional races.

At the stops, you have a choice of water or beer. And someone was very generously handing out cosmos.

The awards at the end of the race include "best injury" and "first smoker" to cross the finish line.

It's all in the spirit of fun and not taking yourself too seriously, which I'm all about.

The course, however, was no joke.

This 6-mile race was held at a local state park. The trail is basically in the woods. Very hilly woods with trees and their roots sticking out of the ground all over the place.

Some of the hills had crooked stairs to climb and when you got to the top, the way back down was through narrow, damp, leaf-covered paths that hid the roots.

Tree branches reached into the paths so you were often ducking to avoid slashing your face or conking your head with a low-lying, wayward limb.

In more than a few places the ground was thick with mud and water. Perfect conditions for straining a groin.

I took the whole thing very carefully, preferring not to have to replace a body part than to make good time.

Still, it was tough for me and at many points I thought it would be really nice if it were over long before the actual finish line.

But, I kept putting one foot in front of the other and at a clearing, a few people stood on the side and yelled to me to keep going. Maybe they saw the struggle on my face, maybe they knew it was a struggle for all of us whether it showed on our faces or not, but that encouragement was exactly what I needed to hear.

More hills and more paths and more people clapping and cheering us on.

This is so important, I thought, to cheer each other on. Even if I'm not sure I can make it, someone else is sure, and so I became more sure. It's catching, this sureness.

We should do it in life. All the time.
Every day is a kind of a race in one way or another. We probably hold back praise or encouragement from each other because we think, who are we? Other people don't care what we think. But they do.

Our words mean more than we know. And if we're not sure they mean anything, we should be encouraging anyway. Because what's the worst that could happen?

"Encouragement" has the word "courage" in it. It's like telling somone, have courage - you're gonna make it. Something we all need to hear at various times in our lives.

You, reading this blog - it's all good. Have courage. Whatever you're going through at the moment, you're gonna make it!
 
Now spread the word!