Medal worthy

Carmen just walked through our door with the biggest grin I’ve seen in months, clutching her first 10K finisher’s medal like it’s made of actual gold. Five months ago she could barely run a mile without stopping. This morning she crossed the finish line at 58 minutes flat and immediately texted me a photo of the time clock because she couldn’t believe it herself.

Medal worthy

We’ve been dissecting every detail of the race for the past hour - the hills at mile four, the water station volunteers who were cheering extra loud, the moment around mile five when she realized she actually had this. She kept saying “I can’t believe I did it” until I finally told her to stop being surprised by her own awesomeness.

Inspecting the hardware like it’s Olympic gold

The medal inspection was thorough and completely necessary. Carmen wanted to make sure it was real, that the ribbon wasn’t going to fall apart, that the engraving was actually there. I told her welcome to the club of people who keep their race medals in weird places and randomly look at them months later just to remember they’re capable of more than they thought.

Jake’s already asking when we’re signing up for the next one. I love that he thinks this addiction is contagious. Spoiler alert: it absolutely is.