Holy moly - that's what I thought after reading about Rebecca Grafton. I could relate to her story and it definitely gave me a mental kick in the butt to get back into my exercise routine.

Please tell me I'm not alone in remembering running the mile in middle school. I hated it and walked probably half of it. I wasn't a runner. I don't know who told me I wasn't, but I just never thought I could do it and nobody told me otherwise. I'm pretty sure it was from here on, I had made up my mind that "running" was something I couldn't do.

Fast forward to earlier this year. Truthfully, I had always wanted to do a 5k or 10k because I was envious of my friends who would run them and take their selfies with medals, crossing the finish line, or on the course. They seriously all looked happy and I wanted to feel that, because I wasn't. I don't know what I was drinking when I decided that I was going to do a 10k in August this year. The only running I did was to my car when it was raining or cold out. Then I suppose there was the time we signed the twins up for mommy and me gymnastics...yeah, I ran then too only because I was trying to hopefully have the twins in the somewhat same arms lenght vacinity.

Back to August. I seriously had good intentions of training. I had downloaded a few apps, but lets face it, after downloading I didn't even open them to train. The weeks and days leading up to my first 10k, I was crazy nervous and serously questioned my sanity when I signed up months ago. But one thing I never did, was want to throw in the towel and not do it. I think deep down, I knew I needed to do this to prove to myself that I could. To prove to myself that I was worth it. You'll never guess what happened...

I DID IT

I ran my first 10k. I suppose I should say I use the word "ran" liberally here - I ran / walked it, but who cares. I finished faster than I thought I would have. I surprised myself an even ran the first 3 miles, which is a HUGE accomplishment for me. I finally had my selfie with my medal.

Then another bug got into me and I signed up to run ANOTHER 10k. Like, who am I. Two 10k's?! Seriously. I don't know what was in the water I was drinking. I had the same intentions as last time and to train, but life got busy and I made excuses, but in the end I still did it and got my second medal selfie.

There were lots of thoughts I had while running. Most of them about my family. I thought a lot about our son and probably even had a few therapeutic tears just letting go. I also thought about how I want my girls to look up to me. I don't ever want them to feel like they can't do something - unless it's pee standing up. I draw the line there. They cannot pee standing up.

I still wouldn't consider myself a "runner" - what sounds crazy to me now, is that I do them for fun. I like challenging myself and I think there's part of me who does it for all those times people made me feel like I couldn't do something - mentally I'm probably giving some of them the middle finger, but more than that, I envision myself doing the "Rocky" arms up when I cross the finish line and yelling "ADRIENNE!"...but people would look at me weird so I only do it in my mind.

In the end, I'm really doing these crazy 10k things because I'm stronger than I ever realized or thought possible - and so are you!