Do You Have a Bucket List?

  I have lots of things written on my bucket list. I wrote my bucket list when I was a teenager, and I try to cross off at least one thing per
year. it has things like 'climb the rockies', 'ride in a helicopter', and 'run a marathon'. I am not a runner. I've always been a 'bigger girl' and when people look at me they see my size, not my atheticim. Think about people who are 'skinny fat', well I am the exact opposite. I remember my first 5k race. It was the 'colour me rad' and I ran it in spring 2015. This race wasn't timed, but I think it took me around 47 minutes to complete. This was my first step toward my goal of a marathon. Fast forward to 2016. I found CrossFit. It not only makes you the most fit you'll ever be, but it changes your state of mind. I'm no longer seeing this daunting task of a marathon, but rather the steps to get there. It turns your 'I can'ts into 'I cans' or 'I'll trys'. I work really hard at CrossFit, and think I am very fit. Running however, is still not my strong suit. But, running a marathon is still on my bucket list and I am going to achieve it. I was scheduled to run my first half-marathon on Thanksgiving weekend 2017. I did very little running training for it (I had done a 10k race two weeks previous, and that was pretty much it) and didn't feel very prepared. But, I knew that all my training in CrossFit would prepare me for the literal 'marathon not a Sprint's that I was about to endure. I told the world I was going to run a half-marathon, and, with the self-confidence, I knew I could. I had my doubts of course, 21.1km is not an easy feat. The night before the race my aunt said to me 'Are you sure you want to run tomorrow? I mean, you didn't really train'. All I heard was 'You can't do this, so you basically shouldn't even try'. The old me would have believed her, and would not of run this race; but the knew me, the me with confidence told her 'no, I came to run a half-marathon, and I am going to run it!' The morning of, I am so nervous, I'm basically crying at the starting point, is my aunt right, will I be able to finish this thing? I start jogging, ever so slowly, before I know I am literally the last person in the race, with a police car following behind me. My intention was to finish the race, but a part of me wanted to beat my aunt, because she filled me with so much doubt. After the first three kilometers, I decided to change my strategy. I was going to do intervals, but run faster. This method worked...for the next 9 kilometers. At kilometer 12, I hit my wall. I didn't want to keep going; but, thanks to CrossFit, and my amazing coaches, I kept going, and I finished the race, beating my aunt's best time by 2 minutes. I realized there, that she was trying to fill my head with doubts, not because she didn't think I could do it, but she thought that she couldn't do it (but she did too). This is why CrossFit is so amazing. No one will every bring you down because of their insecurities because the CrossFit community works so hard to build everyone up, and to give everyone confidence so there is no need to do that to other people. So thank you so much to my coaches and my teammates at CrossFit N6 for building me up in such a way that others can no longer tear me down.