Running After Your Dreams, Part 2 | Sally Perry

Yesterday, Sally shared with us about how she began to rediscover her dreams for her life.  Here's is the second part of her story:

The testimony that was posted yesterday was read in church the day after I ran in The Color Run.  For those of you don't know, The Color Run is a 5k where volunteers stand at each kilometer you complete to douse you with a cornstarch color mixture, leaving you a total colorful mess by the end of the race.

I set out to run a 5k two years ago, and after many stops and starts on training I got serious and signed up for this one.   I had worked up to running from one minute at a time to 5-6 minutes at a time. I went from a 21 minute walk/jog mile to 17 minutes.  The closer I got to the 5k, I started to experience injuries and setbacks in my training.  I just wanted to forget the whole thing.  I had intentions of running this, getting it over with and never speaking of running again.

For months, I knew that there was something spiritual about me running this.  I didn't understand what it was, but it felt like it was big.  So the good news?  I finished.  The bad news was that almost immediately into the run, I felt my leg pulling a little and it felt like a rubber band getting ready to break, and my feet felt like I was literally walking barefoot on hot coals.   I was totally not prepared for running on the uneven, cruel pavement.  I literally was afraid to run at that point, like something was going to break if I did.  Disappointment in myself doesn't even begin to explain the feeling I had.    

However, as I was walking to the finish line I was kind of lamenting to God, “What the heck was this all about God?”  "Seriously, this is my big “spiritual breakthrough”...this is a joke.”  I felt like God said, “This isn't the ending, it's a beginning.”  I know for me things are so much sweeter when I can look back and see how far I've come.   I will never forget the feeling I had of not being able to run the 5k. 

But instead of self-loathing, I believe it has changed my thinking about goals and dreams.  Before I even finished I thought, I'm coming back and doing this until I can run it.  So I will sign up next year.  I won't be näive about what it will take this time.  I also learned that I am no longer the girl who would take this disappointment home and use it as an excuse to give up.  To drown my sorrows in chocolate and donuts.  That girl died this weekend.  I am a fighter.  I know that now.  That is what my weekend was about.  

Dreams don't always turn out exactly how you think they should go, but this went exactly as I needed it to and exactly how God intended it, and that is good enough for me.   I won't quit dreaming.  And, I won't quit running either.