Before I started racing I never used to track my miles. I just … ran. I usually ran about 3 miles based on the distance I knew from tracking it in my car. It never seemed important to me to know specific mileage or my pace. I was just so thankful to be running.
I have written before about how my early running years were cut short by a freak accident that I was in the day before I was supposed to start training for my high school track team. I was left with a compression fracture of my L1 vertebrae, a back brace, numbness in my extremities and a whole lotta pain. I was told no running or strenuous exercise for two years … TWO YEARS! Nowadays they would have let me run much sooner than that. But it was, what it was … and I listened. I’ll get more into the details of the accident one day, just not today.
Anyway, at 15 years old, instead of wearing my high school colors I was placed in Adaptive PE where my biggest claim to fame was learning how to juggle scarves … yes … scarves. Needless to say, it was a rough two years.
When I was finally released to exercise again, I never looked back. I was a crazy working out queen for years. I tried to run again but it hurt … a lot. I’d run off and on at the gym, maybe a little outside once I got pregnant with Sidney, but nothing consistent. Then one day about 9 years ago as I was wogging at a little park just south of our home in Ventura County, I decided to give running a try … again. And well, 9 years later, I’m a mileage and pace tracking runner with a dream of one day qualifying for the Boston Marathon.
… which brings me to my point today. This morning, just about 2 years and 4 months after I started using the Nike+ running app I reached BLACK LEVEL.
Black level … what’s that?!?!
Black level was the highest mileage level the Nike running app had when I started tracking my miles with them. The app has different color levels based on the mileage you run. It’s just one of the things the app does to keep runners motivated. It may seem a little silly to some, but let me tell you, it really did motivate me! Now mind you, I had already logged quite a few miles running in the years previous to this, but I remember thinking … WOW, BLACK LEVEL IS CRAZY MILES!
3,107 crazy miles to be exact … or 5,000 kilometers.
Either way, it seemed impossible to me back in 2012 … but I kept running anyway. Mile after mile passed. Race after race. Then, at the beginning of this year I realized that one day soon I was actually going to do what I once believed was impossible … and that day was today.
Wow … just wow.
There are so many people I need to thank for helping me achieve this running milestone. My family and friends, my running mentors and my Team Victorious teammates. There were a whole lotta people behind this one … and I am so grateful for their love, encouragement and support. Because let’s face it, one cannot live a life beyond their wildest dreams … without some pretty wonderful people standing by their side.
Well, I hope you all have a day where you did something you never thought you could do!!!

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