April Birthday Presents

You may have picked up on this trend of me thinking runners are amazing. I can’t quite put a finger on it but every time I see someone jogging around my neighborhood or down the street I can’t help but wish there was a little box above their head letting me know how far they’ve gone, how far they are planning on going, and why they are running in the first place. To keep myself tuned into the running crowd I spend a lot of time thinking about running, reading about running, and watching people run. On Sunday I finally got up the courage to talk to a woman in my ward that I always see running by my house when I get home from work. Though I stumbled on my words once or twice we had an awesome conversation about the part that running plays in her life and her dream (that she is going to accomplish this August) to run her first marathon! At the end of the convo she asked me if I was a runner… I told her that I read a lot about running but that, no, I am not a runner. When she asked why not my brain shut off and the truth jumped out! “I am too scared!”

After we left church I kept thinking about my answer and you know what? IT’S TRUE! I have been too scared! I’m not scared of putting on my shoes or choosing a playlist on my ipod, I’m not even scared of people seeing me jog around without a destination. I think I have been scared that I would start training and then quit. Scared of quitting… I don’t need anyone to tell me that that is a silly thing to fear and that I can do it because I think it’s a totally normal thing to fear! There are a lot of ‘what ifs’ with trying something new and a lot of those could potentially lead to quitting if you give yourself that option. I think the answer is to have a clear cut goal. Something you really want. To enjoy yourself along the way as you listen to your body. And not give yourself the option of throwing in the towel. The book that I am reading right now (John "The Penguin" Bingham's The Courage to Start: A Guide to Running for Your Life) has been an awesome motivator and has made running sound like something EVERYONE can do, not just those you think of as runners. Why? Because everyone you think of as a runner is just a person that runs… and I can totally fit that mold! The more I thought about my fear the more I wanted to stomp on it and show it who is boss but I felt like that ‘clear cut goal that I really want’ wasn’t there yet and I didn’t want to set myself up for failure by any means…

And then I came home from work yesterday...

I HAVE THE BEST HUSBAND EVER!!!!!!!!!!!! When I got home my sweet honey told me that he had planned a little service date for us – we were going to go to the dollar store and put together snack bags for less fortunate children. The instructions said to include a small toy and we may have gotten a little out of control with that but we had SOOO much fun!!!



We even splurged an extra dollar to buy those useless (but really cool) little capsules that you put in water and wait for them to expand! The only problem was that some of them were obscene (see the yellow bull with three legs and boy parts) and the rest were unidentifiable… but they were so fun!!


The OTHER part of the surprise was my BIRTHDAY PRESENT!!! (Don’t worry – you didn’t miss anything, my birthday is still January 1st but Michael got me an early birthday present!!!) He opened the computer and told me to go look for it so I started with a ‘present for Brit’ google search but that came up with a video of a when Britney Spears' dancers played a prank on her and came out on stage without pants on – haha!! Eventually I got to our Disneyland Day blog (click here to see his original post) where Michael had announced my registration in the first ever Disneyland’s Tinker Bell Half Marathon!!!!!!! HALF MARATHON!!!!!!! LIKE 13.1 MILES!!!!!! I got REALLLLY excited, then had a minor freak-out (since the longest I’ve ever run was like 4 or 5 miles) then got REALLY excited again!!!!!! I can’t believe how thoughtful that boy is sometimes. He knew I was searching for a goal so he plopped one right in my lap, knowing that I probably would never have gotten as far as registering for something so magical. You have got to read his darling post, even better – his darling comment on the post. He took the race route and overlaid it on a map of Disneyland to see exactly where I would be running in the park then spent the next 30 minutes figuring out HIS route so that he could see me running and take pictures at all the right times. Did I mention that I have the cutest, most supportive husband ever? He is currently planning on seeing me on Main Street (mile 2.5), at my biggest wall (we’ll know where that is once I start training), 11 miles, and at the end. I think that he will probably end up doing almost as much running as I will that day in order to catch me at all of the different points along the way. I love it. The race isn’t until January 29th so there will be a lot going on between now and then but having my eye set on that Tinkerbell medal is all I really needed. (Not to mention that we will be traveling to THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!!!!!!!!) CAN’T WAIT!! THANK YOU SNOOKER!!!!!!!!


PS. And then he took me out for frozen yogurt at the Frozen Yogurt Junction by our house. It was incredible. The second I took my first bite I regretted my moderate (yet still bigger than Michael’s) serving size!! Yummmm…