Miles in 2013: 469
Days until the NYC Marathon: 114
Let me start off by saying that I have MET MY FUNDRAISING GOAL! Yesterday I was riding in the car with my husband on our way home from dinner when I felt the familiar email vibration signal on my phone. When I checked it I was stunned.
"Someone just donated $1220.00 to your fundraiser on CrowdRise." it said in huge letters. $1220.00 was the exact amount I needed to hit my fundraising minimum goal. Surely it must be a mistake, a typo, a glitch, something. I opened up the
fundraising platform - luckily I could see who my "anonymous" donation was from. I was still stunned... while still being mindful that this person put "anonymous" I will explain my shock and awe. My donation came from someone in our very large training program. With several hundred runners you can't possibly know everyone in the program as a whole, especially if they are not in your pace group. I have chatted here and there with this person before a race or a practice, and we are friends on the facebook, but I can't say I know them very well. I contacted a mutual friend just to make sure I wasn't dreaming, or that they hadn't mistyped a number, or something crazy. Sure as anything, this was on purpose and meant to be, they wanted me to be at my goal. I cannot express just how thankful I am for honest to goodness generosity and philanthropy. It's easy to be jaded in today's society and this was a refreshing reminder that people still are good and do things to help others just out of the goodness of their heart.
At my goal
This got me thinking. I had several separate conversations yesterday before this donation that all had the same theme. I had talked about how even though it's hard I really try to do the right thing whenever I can. I am far from perfect trust me, but I feel like I have a pretty good moral compass. Here's an example, just this week we were on a field trip with our summer camp and several other summer camps within our organization to see a movie. Literally, the entire theatre was full of kids from our organization. After the movie the other camps bolted and left a huge mess. Every kid had been given a box of popcorn and a soda, and wouldn't you know they were all on the floor in the whole front section of that movie theatre. It wasn't my kids or my camp, but a friend of mine and I didn't think twice and picked up every one of those boxes and cups and threw them away, even though every one of the movie theatre employees told us not to worry about it. Yes, I did it because my students were watching, as my friend says "children live what they learn". I want to model what my expectation is, but I also did it because I knew it was the right thing to do. I like to believe that by doing right, even when it's not ideal or easy I'm putting good karma out there and that it will come back to me and work itself out someday. I truly believe in that way of thinking, and am convinced that this unexpected donation is a result of karma coming back, I even joked with my husband that I was back to square one, like my good deeds are a bank account and I just made a withdrawal.
I also never realized how just doing what I do and being who I am impacts others. I have to give you some back story. Two and half years ago, I realized that I was almost 30 and FAT, not heavy, not fluffy, just FAT. I grew up a skinny kid, was thin most of my early 20's and it wasn't until I was about 24 that I started packing on pounds. All of a sudden I was 29 years old and 234 pounds. I decided I couldn't be that way anymore. So I worked with a friend and her husband, followed their 8 week nutrition and work out plan and lost a chunk of weight and 2 jeans sizes. During this time another friend suggested we take up running. I cannot begin to express how TERRIBLE I was. I ran a few 5k's at an incredibly slow pace and showed up for the first day of Marathonfest less than ready. I struggled for months, had terrible shin splints, asthma and breathing troubles, sore knees (that had already been operated on twice in my teens). I couldn't keep up with the group, I couldn't run the whole 3 minutes in our intervals and I wanted to give up so many times. I even had a meltdown and sat on the corner of the road 3/4 of a mile into a run and cried like a baby. Luckily, the thrifty side of me was not willing to lose the money I had invested into this, I had already paid to join the group for 7 months, I'd already paid my race entry - shoot - I'd even paid FULL PRICE for a pair of running shoes. So I stuck with it. My first half marathon was less than stellar. I'd already signed up for my first marathon (what was I thinking?!?). Then finally 7 months in to this running adventure it all clicked one morning. We went for a run on the route that I had previously hated with a passion, it was freezing, but that day despite the odds, I took off, I passed more and more of our group until I was up front. From then on, running made sense, and while there are always off days, I have continued to get stronger, faster, and more confident. While this was all happening, I'd post my runs and races on the facebook. I lost more and more weight until finally in April I reached the goal weight I had set for myself 2 years earlier. I've continued and actually lost some more since then. Lately I have had several strangers from the running group approach me. The conversation is similar to this "I've watched you for awhile on the track and on the road and I can't believe how you look! What are you doing?" I never realized that absolute strangers were paying attention to me. I've had facebook friends message and say that watching me has inspired them and now they are on a similar path and doing amazing things themselves. I started getting fit and healthy for me, but am glad that I accidentally inspired others on the side!
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2 years and 85 pounds later
This is my long, drawn out thank you. It's also a reminder that when you are the best (not perfect) version of yourself that you can be - others take notice and go on to do amazing inspiring things themselves. Go out today, and do something nice for someone just because. You never know who is watching you.
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