write something every day #17. push through

One of the best things I did was train for a marathon. I was never a runner and hadn't ever run much beyond a mile or 2, but a friend of mine asked me to run it with her and I said yes. At the time, I thought, I'll train with her as a disciplined way to exercise but I'm not going to actually *run* the marathon. Also, I think I sort of knew or felt that I didn't have fortitude. That I lacked a stamina in things. I don't know - it's just what I guess I observed about myself. And if I thought about one of my biggest flaws, it was that I couldn't push through to the end. I didn't have an athlete's mentality. Looking back, I wish I had done a sport and stuck with it because I'm sure that skill would have been drilled in me.

So I trained. Then I ran the marathon. It was such a grind because I was also doing a show at the time where I had to do splits and running pounded my joints so I became less and less flexible. BUT I learned how to persevere. I learned that whenever I thought I had to quit, I still had more left in me. I learned how to suck it up and go. One of the best life lessons I have ever learned.