Slow and easy does it, I reminded myself during Saturday morning’s Krul Lake Half Marathon trail race in Blackwater River State Forest.
This was my fourth consecutive year running this particular race. You may recall some of the debacles from prior races.
2016: My calves seized up with four miles to go and I had to limp to the finish line. When I finally made it back to finish, the food truck had already packed up and the awards ceremony was long since over. Bummer.
2017: In much better shape than the prior year having completed a half marathon training program through Running Wild, I was doing a good job keeping up with the “big dogs” that year. Smug, like a little kid wanting to keep up with his older brother and his friends, I blindly followed the pack I was following down a wrong turn on the race course. A mile into the detour I realized that we were going the wrong way and boldly turned around to back-track to find the race course again. I still finished strong, shaving off 30 minutes from the prior year, and tacking on an extra two miles to the course!
2018: Crazy Amy, Crazy Jessica, and I ran this race as part of our Antelope Canyon ultra marathon training. We finished strong with my best time ever.
Which brings me to this year’s race. Although Crazy Amy and another running friend, Ultra Crazy Kelly (she runs 100KM races, people!), ran the race together (Amanda from our office and her twin sister, Rebecca, also ran the race this year), we collectively decided to keep the pace slow and easy and, much to my delight, we walked every uphill.
My left knee, feeling “twingy” during every run following my Double Header half marathon weekend a couple weeks ago, actually felt good for most of the race until I tripped and almost face planted at mile 8. At least the 2nd water crossing through a creek with knee high deep icy cold water (the lowest water level of the last four years) felt amazing to numb my knee for the last couple miles to the finish.
We finished this year, not in stellar time, but feeling the best I’ve ever felt following a half marathon race. I could even walk an hour later without looking like Frankenstein in my movements!
That’s the wonderfully exhilarating thrill of running the same race on the same exact course each year. Each race, although the same, is different as it unfolds moment by moment for the runner.
So too with life actually (yes, here comes my mindfulness teaching of the week).
Your life unfolds each moment. And try as hard as we might to control the events and people around us, we’re deluding ourselves to think that we can.
I think the “trick” to any “successful” race is to take each moment as it comes, roll with the punches, and enjoy the very fact that you’re even able to run/jog/walk at all.
So too, I think the “trick” to a “successful” life is to take each moment as it comes, roll with the punches, release your desire to control what comes next, and relish in the fact that you are HERE living life at all.
Our attorneys help our clients incorporate this philosophy into their Life & Legacy Estate Plans. We help you build your estate plan to be flexible enough to “roll with the punches” to secure your family’s future yet recognize that there will always be elements outside of your control.
Never forget that one of the greatest gifts you can leave your family, besides your love and unconditional support of course, is the gift of preplanning to simplify the process after your passing and the transition of your assets. After all, who wants to leave a mess behind for a loved one to clean up?
So, if you’re ready to move forward with establishing a Life & Legacy Estate Plan that simplifies matters for your loved ones and leaves them a written roadmap of what should happen next, then give my assistant, Olivia, a jingle and she will explain our process to you and coordinate our schedules to get you started.
Or, if you simply want to learn more, then you might want to join me for the upcoming Free Lunch Workshop I am co-hosting on Thursday, December 12th at 11am at the Fish House in downtown Pensacola. There are a few spaces still available. Olivia can accept your RSVP for this event too by calling our office.
Our office number is 850-439-1191. Or, you can text us at 850-855-4797.
Crazy Amy and I continue our training this Saturday for our upcoming 50 MILE trail race in January to celebrate both of our half-century birthdays next month. Care to join us for a slow and easy 18 mile jaunt through the trails this weekend? Our self-created aid stations rock!
Kristen “Running My Own Race” Marks
P.S. My Pink Lawyer® was named Female-Owned Business of the Year at last week’s 2019 Entrecon Conference in Pensacola. Thank you for your support and your business. Our entire staff treasures the opportunity to serve you and your family with your Life & Legacy Estate Planning.
