Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only
true friends will leave footprints in your heart. Eleanor Roosevelt
I did a couple 5k walks this summer, and I plan to do more.
I have met the most inspirational people on these walks. The story below is one that I want to share
with you from this summer.
As 3:00 p.m. approached on a nice Saturday afternoon the
thought of just taking a long nice nap felt so appealing to me. But no, I had signed up for a 5k walk. The
money from the walk benefited a shelter for women, so this helped motivate me. I kept complaining about going to my daughter.
“Why did you sign me up for this on my
day off? I want to enjoy the day and not go on a walk where I don’t know anyone.
You are going to run, and leave me to walk all by myself.” (I am starting to
see what a complainer I am). As we approached at the starting line I noticed
women of all shapes and sizes, but mostly of the women were in shape unlike me. What was I doing at this 5k? As the mayor of the town spoke he yelled the
words, “on your marks, get set go!”
Almost everybody started running…..even the walkers. Go figure, and I was one of the few women at
the end of the race. This is crazy I
said to myself. I hate being here. To top it all off two young women were beside
me talking like valley girls. They were
skinny as a rail, and one girl was talking that she just had a baby a few weeks
ago. The next thing I noticed was that they
were laughing. They were laughing and
looking at me. They walked faster to pass me while looking back laughing as to
why an overweight lady was all by herself was in this race. They made me enjoy
this walk so much more. NOT!
Now that I was the last person walking, an older lady
dropped back and was really working hard just to walk. She told me that she just had surgery on her
legs, and they told her to walk for her health otherwise she could get blood
clots and not live much longer. As I
walked with her she told me about herself and her family, and she was such a
joy to walk with. Then there were two
walkers that had slowed down also, and they joined us. Both ladies looked like
they could easily be running the race instead of walking. One started telling
us her story of how she had a heart attack and one massive heart attack when
she was only 45 years old. Heart disease runs in her family. She is now on six medications and working to
keep her weight down. She just wants to
live. As we all four walked the remaining miles together we encouraged each
other with every step. We all wanted to
make it across that finish line. When we
made it to the finish line, all four of us ladies held hands and crossed that
line together. Four strangers had come together for an hour, all four with
different lives and different reasons to walk for our health. Those women
inspired me to look at myself in a new way.
I loved going to that walk. I
never knew it would turn out this way. You would have thought that we knew each
other for years. I am so thankful that I went on this walk and met those ladies
who inspired me to continue walking, and it didn’t matter whether we were first
or last place. We finished with a gold trophy for life!
Julie
No comments:
Post a Comment