This morning, like all mornings mine and Ariel's alarms went off in unison. We both pushed the snooze buttons in unison. Then ten minutes later they both went off again. And we both pushed snooze again. Then again, our alarms went off at the exact same time. Then for the third time we pushed our snooze buttons simultaneously. Then our alarms went off again, like twins. Finally, Kelsey got up across the room. Life in the room made us stir. When we realized we had only ten minutes until we were to be in the gym, we jumped up.
From the gym we drove down to the other side of campus where we were going to start a 1.5 mile run. It was 6am. A small group of friends and I have become infamous for staying up super late. But last night we respectfully retired a little past midnight. As I stood in the cool morning air, staring at the sky which looked like a grapefruit that God just sliced open, I regretted not going to bed earlier.
There were about 160 of us. The entire Raven unit and all of the Moose. Dernard laid out the ground rules. And then we were off.
What does running mean to me? Running means leaving my barriers behind. All of the physical frustration and negative thoughts that cross your mind during a long run... When you run through that you realize that there's nothing in the world you can't do. I ran and ran and ran. I told my teammates last night at dinner that my goal for our run was 13 minutes. About halfway through I knew I wasn't going to make it. But I ran and ran and ran. The Chesepeake Bay to my left and my fellow Ravens and Moose at my right. I ran and ran and ran.
When I saw the small crowd in the distance and the group of TL's I felt like an old version of myself. The one who used to run cross country races. I broke into a sprint. I passed several runners and saw two TL's, Julian and Leann cheering my burst of speed. The best feeling in the world though, was the faces at the finish line. Not my friends, or even my fellow Ravens, but my teammates. My guys. There was Jake, Owen and Daniel. I heard them shouting my name and saw their hands held high preparing for high-fives. I felt like I was in high school again. That immense sense of support and love, like you're unstoppable, when your team is there waiting for you at the finish line. I passed the stop mark as Dernard shouted my time; 10:43.
Running means breaking my barriers. I can do anything.
