I gasped loudly as I read the first line from the Boston Athletic Association, "This is to notify you that your entry into the 117th Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, 2013 has been accepted, provided that the information you submitted is accurate."
Oh, joyful, sweet, sweet words! I cried pent-up tears of relief and tears of joy. I was thrilled because although I was optimistic, I knew there was a chance that my entry would not be accepted.
A year ago I read my e-mail from the BAA, and it had confirmed what I was thinking: Even though I had qualified for the 2012 Marathon, my time was not fast enough to be accepted. Around 3,500 of us were notified that there was not enough space to let all qualifiers, the slowest qualifiers, participate. Now the qualifying times are five minutes faster. I met and exceeded my new qualifying time.
For Mother's Day my husband gave me a thoughtful gift, the book Dare, Dream, Do by Whitney Johnson, a successful businesswoman and blogger. Johnson writes about women bloggers who are shaping their lives as they go along and are daring to have new dreams.
My dream of running in the Boston Marathon is relatively new. In late 2010, I could feel the possibility, and I set the goal. I have had many dreams and set many goals; sometimes I have been successful and sometimes not. What I find fascinating is how my life has unfolded in a way I could never have imagined. It is not the life I envisioned, the one with a rewarding career outside my home. I was in the process of building that career, and I gave it up when my first child was born.
One of the chapters of the book that resonates with me is about how sometimes plans don't work out, but something even better can come from that experience. I don't know how things will unfold from here, but I've seen the power of allowing myself to dream a new dream.
No comments:
Post a Comment