I’m not an athlete but I did do something that knocks on the door of athletic. I ran in race this weekend. It was a marathon relay. That means five people split up the 26.2 miles of a full marathon. I took the last leg so I had to run around 4 miles. I trained over the last few months.

My main goal was to run the entire leg of my race and not stop to walk. I did stop to walk up a hill while I drank some water. But only for about 15 seconds, so I don’t feel too bad about it. If I’m being totally honest I was very nervous. I didn’t want to be the only one on my team to fail. (The other runners were all actual athletes or actual former athletes.) I was afraid that I somehow the 4.5 miles I ran in my neighborhood wouldn’t be enough to prepare me to do a real race.

The event was fun. There were hundreds of positive and physically fit people raring to take on the day. I didn’t quite fit in because I never think of myself as physically fit and I felt pretty pessimisstic about my abilities despite training for this. The first four legs of our relay team did great. Then it was up to me to finish up. We weren’t trying to “win” anything, this was just a way for five friends to do something together. So there was no pressure to be fast, just to finish. It was 85 degrees by the time I ran – about 20 degrees hotter than the weather I trained in. Which proved to be a problem for me. That’s too darn hot!

But I ran. There were people passing me left and right but I too passed people taking walk breaks. Those were the amazing people running 1/2 marathons (13.1 miles) and full marathons (26.2 miles.) I was in awe of the runners.

Not too far into it I began having trouble. The heat did not agree with me. As I ran a mantra started playing in my head. “Too hard. I hate this. How much longer?” My anxiety increased when I realized these thoughts were taking over and I was only a mile into it. But as I slugged along another runner, who had to be at least 20 years older than me, passed me, turned around, ran backwards to face me for a second. He said, keep going. I gave him a little wave. He turned around and kept going.

I started repeating his mantra in my mind, keep going, keep going, keep going, as I put each shoe to pavement. And I kept going. And soon there were spectators cheering, “You’re almost there!” I was wondering what the heck that meant in a 26.2 mile race. As I approached a turn the crowd yelled, “The finish line is just around the corner!”

And it was, and  picked up the pace and I did it. I ran my 4 miles in a real race, with real athletes. I also learned it really isn’t about my legs (which hurt) or my body (which was too hot, and not in a good way.) It was about my head. It told me to keep going.

Today, I am a little sore, no thinner, but I’m an athlete (sort of). Athletes keep going. So I’m going but today it will be a  walk. Join me? Let’s KEEP GOING!

Fun Fact: Fictional Rocky Balboa ran the marathon to get into the Guiness Book of World Records for the Fastest Fictional Character to run a Marathon.