A network partner of mine, Chantel Ray, sent this email to a bunch of us after the recent Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon here in Virginia Beach. I loved it so much I asked her if I could post it on my blog.

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"Every time I do a ½ marathon, I like to think about what I learn because I always learn something every time I run.  Sunday I ran the Rock and Roll ½ marathon and here were my thoughts.  

Chantel Don’t make excuses:  I love running these races, because shortly into the race, I see the people who get to start before most people that are making their way back on one of the loops.  I see the Kenyans who are booking it and just their stamina and the level of training they have taken to be at the very top, I see the people who are in wheelchairs that are using their arms only because they either don’t have legs or they can’t use legs to push themselves to the finish line, or I see dads that are pushing their children who are disabled across the finish line.  I thought all these people could have made excuses of why they couldn’t run the race, some of them didn’t have legs!  They didn’t they made a decision to rise above their circumstances.   A week before the race, I ran on the beach with a friend and I hurt my hip my Psoas muscle, I had a ton of people tell me NOT to run the race, that I would get more injured but I decided to run it anyway.  I figured I had one muscle out of 800 muscles injured…that there were people who had 2 legs that didn’t work.  There was a girl that said had a shirt that said “a Broken leg is not a reason to quit.”  I had a great excuse for not running, I had really injured my hip, I could barely walk yet alone run, I just made a decision to not make any excuses and to run anyway.

Hang out with people who encourage you:  Lately I have been really hanging out with people who really encourage me, and all the people that drain me, I have spent very little time with.  I didn’t hang out with all the people that are negative that would say you better not run it, you don’t want to take a chance.  My trainer told me “If I told you to run through a brick wall, I think you would do it.”  It’s awesome to hang out with people who believe in you and believe you can do anything. 

Push yourself more than you think you can:  Along the way I kept asking myself.  Chantel, can you push yourself more? The answer is always yes! You always can push yourself MORE!

Be with a team that stands out:  I ran this race with some friends and we decided to wear hot pink knee socks, and hot pink hair bows.  It was so cool, because every ¼ mile I saw one of my friends that I knew that was cheering me on.  And in the interim when I didn’t see someone, we had people cheering us on, who I didn’t know, saying, "Go Pink!" or "Go pink socks!" or "Go socks!"  All because I was with a team that stood out. 

Always Encourage others:   While I was running and we passed the 4-mile marker and a girl right behind me said “Oh gosh, I am ready to give in already and we are only 4 miles in.”  I yelled behind, "Read my shirt, read my shirt!"  My t-shirt had the below quotes written on it, and it was so cool cause she laughed and it made her keep going!