The Gift, To Give.

 

 “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” — William Shakespeare

We have all been on top of the mountain and have cried deeply in the valley.

The tears of humility, swift reminders of our fragility. 

My running is a perfect illustration of this. 

On that Mountain, Team Harless chased me all around from Michigan to the mountains of West Virginia, from 5K's to a 100miles my family always supported me and encouraged me. 

And when it was their turn, I was on the sidelines, cheering, hollering, their biggest fan. 

In the Valley, when I was sidelined by injuries, cancer or surgeries, when I crawled inside myself with just a breath to hope. 

It was in the Valley that my tears, my desperation, my solitude, my brokenness was lifted.  Not by anything I did, but by the love of others. 

In the Valley, my wounds were cared for. The Lord circled me with the cheer and love of so many. 

To Give: 

I have ran races encouraged by others and I have taken my turn on the side lines encouraging others. 

To Give is truly to receive. 

You get Love when you give Love. 

You get Encouraged when you give Encouragement. 

You get Inspired when you give Inspiration. 

You get Cheered up when you give Cheer. 

CRIM 2022: Pacing with the Carebears. 

 Pacing the Crim came at the last minute when Lacey asked me to take her place. The crazing thing is I was supposed to pace in 2019 when I asked her to take my place and now she was asking me to do the same thing. 

This summer I had been doing speed work and ready to actually RACE! But it was more special to give back to a race that has given me so much. 

My running group, wanted to bring back the Carebears!  Our costumes had been hibernating since March when we ran Ashville in them. 

Even though Lacey asked me to pace she still joined us that morning to run! It was just like 2019 only the roles were switched. I was so happy she was with me. 

2019 Lacey and I

All of us bears with Traci, my pacing partner and Lacey lined up at 7:30 am to pace the 10min/mi group.  Complete Runner, our group we all run for showed up in their Carebear outfits and a stroller carrying a loud boom box to get everyone hyped up. 

The  news crews also showed up! 

But it wasn't about being in the spotlight. 

It was about spreading encouragement, cheering people on, and giving unlimited smiles and kindness. 

It was "Hey, Your doing BEARY good!" or "Your almost Bear..." 

We were not emBEARassed by all our ridiculous bear puns because we saw so many runners having fun.  We could Bear-ly stand ourselves. 

To Give.

Its about giving back. I think of all the amazing volunteers that have rallied and motivated me and what an impact that has not only had on me physically but emotionally too. 

WORDS are POWERFUL. 

KINDNESS is INVALUABLE. 

SMILES are DELIGHTFUL.

CHEER is MEANINGFUL.

LOVE is PURPOSEFUL.

Pacing it In

The Crim is my favorite local race. I am coming close to having 

ran it almost 20 years in a row. There is an energy there that is bountiful. It unites everyone; every pace, every color, every age, everyone with excitement. 

I love the energy. I get so carried away in the fullness of excitement. HOWEVER, this is a blessing and a cursing. 

It's like sensory overload! I am bouncing all over the place trying to stay on task. With music rousing the crowds, the comradery of the runners and aid station entertainment we some how managed to finish 30 seconds ahead. The target is 10 seconds, we may not have won closest to the time for our pacing but we had so much joy in the journey! 

• Biggest shout outs to all the volunteers throughout the course. It was delightful to see the school bands back out there along with so much course entertainment we used to have before covid. 
• THANK YOU for all the encouragement and kind messages! 
• Thank You Complete Runner for showing up with Awesomeness!
• It was fantastic to see the quantity of runners again lining up the streets along with spectators! 
• And I loved seeing so many familiar faces. Congrats to the runners for crushing their goals and running their hearts out on such a BEARY Good DAY!

"Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving

 more."

IN Peace, not pieces,

Anita~