Success in so many ways!

Yesterday Sunday May 16th, was a huge day for me!! It was the the first DMMF run event "Run Around the Square" here in town.

As part of the organizing committee, I was very nervous as all of our hard work was now going to be put to the test. Were we going to pull it off? How was this run going to be received? What are we going to have for numbers? Will we have enough~~run bibs, pins, registration bags, shirts, food, water? And so on.

When we all met in the morning for our briefing, setting up for the event, we knew we had 192 people that had registered on line!! That number itself, was daunting and blew us away!! The doors opened for the public at 0715 and people starting streaming in. I was not part of the registration aspect so I left and helped with the outdoors set up!!

I grabbed my registration package and donned my run shirt and bib and anxiously awaited the arrival of my brother, but kept busy setting up the prize tables and tents.

My brother arrived and we smiled for the camera pre race~~would we be smiling when we crossed that finish line? I was not sure. I was very, very nervous and have never really experienced a feeling of complete nervousness ever before~~not on my engagement day, wedding day, birth of my son day, tough calls at work day..never ever!!

People were milling around all over the square, some drinking coffee and meeting up with friends, some stretching, some sitting meditating and some, if you can believe it, actually running around the square for a warm up!! Those were some serious runners.

I had people ask about the children's run and told them were to register...originally we had wanted to give the children that were running, their own official race bibs, but was blown over when we had to take them back and use them for the people that were coming out of the wood work and registering that morning!! Who wakes up on a Sunday morn and just simply decides " I think I will go and run a race today?"..UNBELIEVEABLE!!

Rumour had it we were looking at over 100 people walk in and register!! We were all amazed!!

Finally the event got under way and my brother and I, had some encouraging words for each other and off we went. We really did not have a finish time so to speak..just the ability to finish was good enough for us!!! People were lined up on the streets clapping and cheering and what a feeling!! One I have never experienced in my life. The words of encouragement, the screaming, the hoots and hollers were overwhelming..but nothing could ever prepare me for what was to come!

The route was a great one and we had practiced it a few weeks ago so we knew what to expect!! Thank goodness as it would have been extremely daunting. To see our partners at each major corner taking pictures, was amazing and gave me, the will to push on.

Did we run the entire 5K~~NO~~we took walking breaks and I was not ashamed of that at all. Lots of people were doing that and lots were walking the entire route, and some were flying by us on their second loop to make the 10K run (and by the way, those runners were all men trying to prove something I heard one woman say laughing!!).

All I know is that we made it to the water station at the 2.5K mark and knew we were going to do this!!

Making our last turn onto North Street and heading towards the square, the adrenaline or will or god knows what took over( maybe it was my friend in heaven Dave Mounsey) but I knew that this was a huge doable event for me and that I was going to accomplish something I never in a million, gazillion years, ever dreamt I would think about but certainly participating in the run itself. People dream and strive to do these types of things, but not me, atleast not prior to this event. I had more fun sitting on the side lines and peeking in at others!!

We hit the square and it all came flooding home..the laughing, the tears, the screams, the clapping, the encouraging words from Dave up above, and when we rounded that last corner, I looked up to see my co workers who were on duty in the ambulance throw on the lights, just for me, and I knew I was going to do this!!

My brother said "go ahead Lizzie bring it home" and the tears came streaming down my face but I said "no we are in this together" and I linked my arm in his and we crossed that finish line together!!!

WE DID IT!! WE DID IT!! WE DID IT!!

I have never ever experienced a myriad of emotions at the 40 min 8 second mark in my lifetime. To know that I accomplished something so huge, so powerful, so amazing, was overwhelming to me.

Journey's seem to take us all over the place in our lifetimes~~be it travelling to exotic places, to travel across our own land, friendship journey's, journey's of love or the loss of love, healthy lifestyle journey's or whatever journey we may find ourselves on~~but the journey to accomplish a feat that you never dreamt you could ever do, is the best journey of all.

Already planning the next run as I believe I have found that switch and am going to turn it on and continue on my journey in my size 9 shoes!!! Being 15 lbs lighter since I started training for this in January, sure helped!! ;)