THERE GOES A FIGHTER
I ran (trotted) a 5k this past weekend. For some that may not be a big deal but for me it was huge.
Truth is I am not in very good shape. I have been going to the gym once a week since the beginning of the year. Its not much, but life is pretty active without the gym. I made this commitment in January. Except for two weeks when I had the flu, I have gone and worked out. I have been doing the stair machine and the treadmill when I go, but I have never run the 3.1 miles on the treadmill for at least a couple years. I have been working the sit up machine and lifting weights to build up my arms for a friendly arm-wrestle challenge that is coming up. But that’s about it. To say I was ready for this run would be a severe overstatement. I am not in what I feel is good running shape.
In fact, I was worried that I would have to walk a lot of the way.
I gave myself permission to walk if I needed to and landmarks where I could do this. I was listening to music and of random songs that I had not picked. Right about the time I thought I might have started walking the song comes on The Fighter that was my motivator to continue. It made me start thinking about all the times I could have quit and I do not mean just this race. But goals, relationships and life in general.
Starting with the beginning when I was in the womb. It was known early on I was not destined to live my life with my first mother. I could have given up then, quit the race to the delivery. The two weeks waiting to find my parents I would live with, I could have given up. When my first marriage was heading to divorce, when my teenage son was testing me finding his wings, when I was coming out, when new relationships were not working out the list could go on and on. Many times in the course of my life, when things just seemed like it was not going to get better, I did not quit, I have not quit and I do not plan on quitting.
There could have many words in many songs but these words, these songs pushed me to the end and I finished the race running. Slow but I ran it!
We are all fighters; we are all moving mountains, because we are here, living every day.
I want my obituary someday to say “There goes a fighter!”
I also signed up for another 5k and added these to my playlist. I need a goal and I need something to work towards. For now running is it!
Some of the words that really resonated with me.
The Fighter by Gym Class Heroes
Give 'em hell, turn their heads
Gonna live life til we're dead
Give me scars, give me pain
Then they'll say to me, say to me, say to me
There goes a fighter, there goes a fighter
Here comes a fighter
Rise Up by Andra Day
You're broken down and tired
of living life on a merry go round
and you can't find the fighter
But I see it in you so we gonna walk it out
And move mountains
We gonna walk it out
And move mountains
And I'll rise up
Can't Hold Us by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
Can we go back, this is the moment
Tonight is the night, we’ll fight till it’s over
So we put our hands up like the ceiling can’t hold us
Like the ceiling can’t hold us