A Butterfly Story

I Didn’t Think I Could Do It….WOW was I wrong!

 Lynne Alford

Mother, Customer Service Manager, Lover of all types of Music, RUNNER!

One evening with friends, having dinner, enjoying the conversations, I mentioned I’d like to run a 5K one day before my 50th birthday. A Butterfly was at the table. She told me about the running club she joined and how she was about to run her 1st 5K. She said “I’ll forward you the email. You should come out and run with us.” Now, I’ve never run anywhere a day in my life. So although I had this “dream” I didn’t think I would be able to really run 3.2 miles. It was just a dream or so I thought.

My first evening with the group; a little intimidated by these women runners, I shared with them;  “My goals are not your goals; I don’t run”. This is now a “running” joke in our club no pun intended.  Our coach walked with me that day and I shared with her my dream to run a 5K, maybe even a 10K. I didn’t think I could, very little confidence and every excuse in the book, from my knees, my ankles….etc. Walking was ok for me.

Later that week though, I had a training schedule in my email box which I thought was really funny; but I said ok I’ll give it a shot.

Week 1; run 1 minute…what? I didn’t know 1 minute was so long. LOL

Week 2; run 2 minutes; really? This is tough

Week 3; I ran 2 minutes last week, surely I can do 3 minutes.

I’m having these thoughts but as the weeks go by I’m running. I’m running longer and now up I’m at:

Week 4; 7 minutes on my schedule and then I can walk 2 minutes. I’m ready!

We’ve warmed up and ready to start our run and the ladies around me said we’re going to stay with you and keep your pace, which they did. We’re running, I’m listening to them talk, listening to my music and around 4 minutes they check in with me. How you doing? I said, “I’m good”.  Still running, a couple minutes later again they asked; How you feeling?  “I’m ok”. We’re still running, Coach checked her watch and checked in on me again, the other ladies are wondering is she going to stop? By this time, we’ve run more than 7 minutes and I just knew I wanted to keep going until I couldn’t go anymore. I wanted to make the mile and I did. Because they stuck by me, encouraged me, inspired me to keep going, I ran a mile for the first time in my life. Wow…it still blows my mind.

Today, I can say I’ve run my first competitive 5K in a little over 46 minutes. What an amazing experience I had that day. Going over that finish line, accomplishing one of my goals, my children were there and they were so proud of their mom. Surrounded by the Butterflies and having them congratulate me, support my efforts and just encourage me the whole race.

Really words aren’t sufficient enough to describe the feelings I felt that day. One race down and I’m still running; training for the next race, the next hurdle and one day soon I will accomplish another goal; the 10K; and then the next a half marathon. All this from someone, who didn’t think she could do it! Wow, was I wrong.

A favorite quote:
Confucius- “it does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” This will be my motto.
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