Life is why.

Here is something I know for sure:

I can do just about anything I set my mind to doing if I just show up, try my best, and refuse to give up. This morning I woke up to a relentless rain on a day that I was scheduled to run a half marathon. A half marathon for which my training had left some things to be desired. When I picked up my race number the day before and heard about the forecasted weather, I was honestly feeling fifty-fifty about even showing up at all. To make matters worse, my morning MARTA train was delayed for technical difficulties and nearly threatened to make me miss the start time. Which would have been a perfectly acceptable excuse to turn around and go straight back home.

Yup.

Then I thought about something my friend Larry S., a cardiologist and Emory colleague, gave me last week. It was a lapel pin he'd gotten from an American Heart Association meeting with a pair of red running shoes and a simple statement on it:

"Life is why." 

He made sure to put it into my hands because he, a seasoned runner, knew that I was a relatively new one who'd been motivated by the loss of my sister to heart disease. I'm so glad Larry gave me that pin and thought of me that day. It was just the motivation I needed this morning. A reminder of why I run.

And so. I showed up. By myself. In the rain. Early in the morning. I tried my best. And didn't quit.

And you know what? It rained the entire time. Hard sometimes even. And it was cold, too. But guess what? I dug in, thought of my sister, and finished strong. I sure did.

So why would an already tired and already exhausted full-time working mother of two go out for a 13.1 mile in a chilly downpour?

Life is why.

Yeah.

***
Happy Sunday. How are you challenging yourself?