eat pray run

As I am drawing a close to my Charleston experience, I am feeling bittersweet about leaving this fair city. I don't know how I have been so fortunate as to have been blessed with meeting the wonderful people I have here but I am so very thankful that I have. I will miss each and every one of you...you know who you are :) I am hoping that I will find myself back here a few times this summer! I learned a lot about myself during my time here. I really did eat, pray, and run A LOT! There was no love to it but that's ok. Running became my new love and I am thankful for that. I feel that many things would not have been accomplished had I still been in Tennessee all this time. I needed time for reflection and growth in order to progress. I did this for me. I hope there are no hard feelings from my people in Johnson City because I left for a while, because you are my people.

EAT~If you don't know Charleston is one of the best culinary experiences you can have in one city! Very seldom are chain restuarants to be found here and they are not to be patroned unless you want to be shunned by the natives. I have had the fortune to experience many of these culinary offerings while here but still feel like I didn't even get the tip of the iceberg. When you come to Charleston, explore!

PRAY~With God, all things are possible. Without Him, I would have been so lost in this new city all alone for the first time in my life. It's hard for me to come out of my comfort zone and open up to new friends. I may be goofy and grace you with my singing and dancing but that doesn't mean that you really know me. It takes me a while to let people in, as it did here. God helped me through a lot...from what was going in on in the present to things that happened in my past. I feel like I worked a lot of things out and I am coming through better for it. I needed the alone time here. I have always depended a lot on my friends and family to help me through things. Here I learned to do it by myself.

RUN~I feel like all of you reading my blog have watched me learn and develop as a runner this year. I am far from finished. Still a long way to go to that 23:00 5k, 49:00 10k, 1:45 half, and finishing a whole marathon but I am getting there. I am so much closer than I have ever been. I look back to my first ever race and I struggled to finish a 5k in 31:09. It was reallll work...and now, I am hoping to post a 25:00 very soon. Be on the lookout. My first half-marathon I completed in 2:40. And just brought home my second one in 2:03. That's 37 minutes!! I am not bragging. Please do not take it this way. I am just happy! :) I want to be a success and this feels like WINNING(Charlie Sheen voice here)! In all seriousness though, I'm not sure that I would have pushed myself and put myself out there had I been home and trying to run with the girls that I went to Disney with. They intimidated me incredibly. (Love you girls!) Here, I could do it in the privacy of my "own" Ravenel bridge, Isle of Palms(IOP)Connector, and treadmill. I pushed myself to my limit and it was good. I have built my confidence to be able to run with them now and I have even found some pretty awesome new friends in them! :) Everything happens for a reason...