Race Results are In!

Running isn't easy.  I have been running at least four days a week for the last six months.  I still don't look like the runners on television, or in magazine ads.  I still have fat in places I don't want it.  But here is the thing: I don't care.

Call it an epiphany if you will.  As I ran up the long hill back to campus for the race, my heart was beating fast and my lungs were caked with pollen.  I was not slowing down.  I was not giving up.  I came in within the first ten people of the 5K.  I was blown away.

No one in my family runs.  NO ONE.  My sister was a track star for awhile before she was sidelined from injury in 9th grade.  I was the fat sister.  I was the one in pictures that you thought, "She has a pretty face."  My sister though, was beautiful.  She had long, straight perfect blonde hair.  She was tall.  She was thin.  She was invited to model.  I was so crushed I at the whole box of Samoa's.

In sixth grade I was weighing in at 171 pounds.  I remember the number because I had to go see a nutritionist.  They weighed me, poked me, and put my fat in calipers.  It was humiliating.

No matter how much I wanted to lose weight, I couldn't.  I found out later in life, I had a reaction to the protein in both milk and eggs.  No wonder I was gassy and in pain for so long!   I can't blame my Mom for not having the testing done.  She was a single Mom that was given a $20.00 child support amount for the first eight years she was divorced!  There were four of us girls and $20.00 doesn't cover much.  We ate what we were given. 

Now I do my best to avoid the things that I have problems with and exercise regularly.  I refuse to let my body get into the "overweight" zone.  I will be healthy, even if it means not buying junk in the first place.

When Mom went to the hospital with chest pain, they gave her diet pills.  The doctor never even picked up his stethoscope.  She had a large, inoperable tumor in her lung, but they wouldn't know that for three more months because they told her she was, "just fat."

That is my motivation to run.  I want a doctor to take my pain and complaints seriously.  I want to live.

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