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| Source and more details at Runner's World. |
What's even more impressive about Des's win is that she's run 14 marathons in the last 11 years, coming in second place in several major races: Boston, Chicago, and the US Olympic Trials. A few years ago she missed winning the Boston Marathon by mere seconds.
But she kept at it. She kept running and training and striving towards her goal of winning one of the World Marathon Majors. No matter how many races she didn't win, she kept trying.
And on Monday she did it! On a cold and rainy day, after slowing down to help out her US teammates, after considering dropping out of the marathon- she won the damn race!
Watching her performance solidified for me why I love the sport of running so much. The grit, tenacity, and perseverance that runners demonstrate, day in and day out, is awe-inspiring.
I think Des herself sums it up best:
Des also did something else this week- she helped confirm some running dreams of mine.
As a back-of-the-pack runner, I will probably never qualify to run the Boston Marathon. I may never break a 5 hour marathon. A sub-30 5k may be out of my reach.
But I'm still going to show up. To every race, to every workout, to every training session.
And I'm abso-freaking-lutely going to run another marathon.
After my Unofficial Goofy Challenge in January, I wasn't sure if I wanted to run another marathon. My last 26.2 mile adventure left me feeling two things equally- "Holy hell, this sucks and everything hurts and I don't want to do this anymore" and "I want to run another one- and run it fast."
I'm 99% sure I'll be registering for the 2019 Walt Disney World Marathon. I like this race, I love Disney World, and I'm confident I can run a fast (for me- sub 5:30) marathon in January 2019.
This summer/fall training cycle, I'm going to show up. Repeatedly. Every damn day. And I am going to run my fifth marathon in 2019.
Training will be hard. It will hurt. Sometimes, it'll downright suck. Some days, I'll question my ability to run long distances. But I'm going to keep showing up.
Putting this out into the universe is scary; what if I can't make good on my goals? What if I get injured, again? What if all the wheels fall off and I can't finish the race I trained for?
Honestly, the answer is so, so simple. Like Des said, "Keep showing up." ❤
What are you going to "keep showing up" for?
