My So Called Grown Up Life: A Long Overdue Update... 26.2 Miles

"The person who starts the marathon is not the same person who finishes the marathon."

26.2 Miles.

Those miles changed my life.

The training, my training partners, my supporters… it all changed me.

It’s no secret that when I registered for the Marine Corps Marathon I was in the midst of the biggest struggle of my life. Running (and everything it gave me) kept me going. There were many days the only reason I got out of bed was to meet my training partners for our morning run - it was accountability for me. If I didn’t show up, there would be texts, questions, concerns.

In the weeks before the race I began to mentally struggle with whether or not I could do it. Could I really run 26.2 miles? Finally I remembered all I had been through. I remembered running through tears & heart breaking pain and all the people that never let me quit. These people had picked me up when I was down and carried me on. The amazing people in my life had brought me this far and I couldn’t let them down.

I also realized that this year, the pain, the challenges, the heartbreak... it changed me for the better. It broke me into pieces, only to rebuild me into something better. Out of the most painful experience in my life I was given a new world full of so many blessings, I cannot begin to express them all. Crossing the finish line of those 26.2 miles was more than just a finish line for the marathon. It was a finish line for the past, I left things on the course I needed to forget and I then crossed the start line of a new world for me.

In the most perfect timing ever, "Good in Goodbye" came on just as I crossed the finish line.

"As bad as it was, yeah, as bad as it hurt
I thank God I didn’t get what I thought that I deserved
Sometimes life leads you down a different road
When you’re holding on to someone that you got to let go
Someday you’ll see the reason why
There’s good in goodbye"