Practicing Bravery

I want to start this post by saying that running on trails is way out of my comfort zone. This morning I went to meet a group of runners that were  running 13 miles on a trail I had never run on before. I am going to run a half marathon on the same trail in a couple months so I thought this would be a good way for me to run the trail and hopefully get acquainted with it. I had to get up really early so I could go pick up my dad and be there by 7 a.m. I was really glad it was early because its so hot here right now. 

Trails for me are way more work than running in the street. I will tell you why.
First of all when God was handing out internal navigation systems he forgot to give me one. I am afraid of getting lost and being afraid makes it so that I get lost. That's why  never run alone on a trail. Second trails intimidate me. There an unknown.
 Third is I don't want to ever run out of water on a trail.
I ran out of water today.

Here I am mile 2. Baby it was hot out there. I felt great this morning. I was on time to everything , I had all my clothes ready I left with out anyone waking up. My car had a full tank of gas . See everything was a go. 

The reason I named this blog post practicing bravery is because I am doing things I would walk away from before. This morning me showing up to a meet up with a bunch of strangers and run 13 miles on a trail. (eek) I also ran hard today. I have this feeling all the time that if I try to run fast I will burn out before I finish and end up walking so I pace myself but of course there is always that feeling of what if I pushed and ran hard ? How far could I go ? Would I burn out ? My dad only went out 3 miles with me and then he decided to turn around so at this time the only group around me was the fast people. I did not think I could keep up but then again I didn't want to run alone. I told myself to try. 

Look I tried. I fell and I got back up..Literally
I was not able to keep up with the fast peeps but I ran my fastest 13 miles ever trying.
I pushed so hard I did not see the bridge and I fell on it. Thank God no one was watching.
I am fine its just a scratch . So I learned a-lot about myself  today.

I learned its ok to be scared but being scared does not give me permission to back out. Being scared is just a feeling and feeling are meant to be worked through . I do feel like I got my butt kicked out there and it was hard. I am so impressed with those amazing athletes that kick ass on trails. I hope to kick ass on trails one day but for now I just have to show up put in the work .