100 Days of Wonder – #3

In spite of the smile in the photo, I hated most (all?) of my first Disney race. It was a half marathon. Training had been awful, I hated running and I did it only because we were doing it for charity. Our friend Rachel had died the previous year and nothing much made any sense. The run was for her. I look back at that run with wonder and awe. At this point the only thing running had taught me was that I hated running. I don’t know how I did it. I don’t know how I got round. I had no clue what I was doing. That woman in that picture there – she had so much mental strength, she was so determined to finish and she crossed the finish line purely because doing anything else would have been unthinkable. On this occasion doing the impossible wasn’t fun, not at all. But I look back at this picture and smile. It’s the perfect reminder that we are always stronger than we think we are. I suspect that this run also set the scene for what is now a more than 10 year love/hate relationship with running and with RunDisney in particular. I look at 2013 me with so much admiration that I sometimes forget that’s me. But it is and I find both joy and wonder in that.