Start of the race
Myself & friend, Amy
Part of the race course
I finished!
“O--M--G,” I thought disbelievingly as my heart sank mere moments before loping off into the woods. About 100 other racers and I had just been bussed and dropped in the middle of Blackwater State Forest on a deserted fireroad which apparently had no cell service.
What do you mean that I cannot access my Spotify playlist that I spent two weeks perfecting for my first ten mile trail race? [How was I supposed to know that I needed to toggle the button on the application that says “make available offline”?]
Am I really going to run this race with NO MUSIC?! I needed something to take my mind off of what I was about to do for the next 2+ hours. After all, I don’t particularly enjoy running. I enjoy the challenge and getting away from the “real world,” but enjoy running itself? Not so much.
No time to cry or scream or throw things (dang it). The bus had left and I had no escape option nor time to change my mind as the race director had just yelled, “Go!”
It turns out that although I did have a few songs saved on my phone, I didn’t really need them. The course was flooded from the monsoon-like rain we’d had in the days leading up to the race. We were trekking through mud and waist-high deep water for half of the race.
I had never run ten miles before, let alone a ten mile trail run, but I was hoping that my boot camp attendance (read more about that here) would pay off and I would at least finish before the post-race food ran out.
My goal was to finish the race in under two hours which I did, at 1:58. I finished 9th out of 19 women in my age group. Top Half. Woohoo!
Although entirely unexpected, the wet race conditions made for an unforgettable and AMAZINGLY FUN race experience.
As a perfectionist, running the Blackwater 10 Mile Trail Race would have been easy to postpone. After all, I’d never run that far before, I didn’t know what to expect, I am still getting back into shape following a long hiatus, I was not prepared for wet conditions, and my music (my security blanket) was MIA.
However, as with preparing for a race, no (estate) plan is ever perfect. We prepare the best we can, think through the various things that can go wrong, try not to overthink it (which leads to procrastination), put the plan into motion, and then readjust along the way.
YOUR ESTATE PLAN IS NOT A BUCKET LIST ITEM TO CHECK OFF YOUR LIST. YOU SHOULD REVISIT IT AFTER EVERY MAJOR LIFE EVENT OR EVERY THREE YEARS.
Although in hindsight, there are things I would do differently in preparing for the race, I’m so glad I actually did it!
An imperfect race that is run is better than no attempt at all.
Any written estate plan is better than no planning at all.
I encourage you to JUST DO IT!
Getting started with your own estate planning is super easy. Just reach out to our office and we will guide you through our step-by-step system to putting your family’s estate plan in place. Or visit our website to download our free planning guides and new book to learn more.
