Time for good decisions

October 30th I got off work at noon and headed on over to Laguna Lake to volunteer with set up and registration for the first annual Halloween mud mash. I arrived on location and got to help Yishai and his crew of 2 assemble the steps and ropes to the 12 foot solid wall. The guys were happy to have my help and they made it alot of fun for me.

Halloween morning I arrived to help with registration. At 9:00 am the race started. The course took us through the lake, a swamp, on over-unders, and on to the cargo net. I was standing in line at the cargo net and got a little teary eyed watching a father coach his son over the net. At the top of the cargo net I got nervous and I heard a familiar voice say come on Joanie. It was my friend Jason who I was in EMT academy with and I had always looked up to him. It was just the calming shove I needed right then. I came down the cargo net and approached the 12 foot wall. I chose the left side of the wall as the day prior I had tried the right. I struggled and struggled but was determined to get over the wall because I knew I could. I had nothing to prove to anyone except myself. I conquered that wall and looked back and thought wow it took four sets of hands to build that wall and it created mounds of fun for numerous hands. The course continued with a challenging run up and over a mountain with a finale mud pit finish at the end which I so gracefully tackled face first.

This was by far the most enjoyable run I have done to date and it benefitted special olympics so it meant alot to me with my younger brother being born with down's syndrome.

I'm still running and times it gets tough I think back to something my Dear friend Chris once wrote. Never let anyone tell you you're not good enough! I also think of Chris doing his daily walk trekking across America averaging 30 miles daily pulling his wagon traveling with his dog and I say if Chris can keep walking I can certainly keep running I don't even have a load to pull.

We all have various motivating factors in life that lead us to be engaged in making a decision. I once had to attend a monthly meeting where I was forced to stare at a banner that simply stated "it all starts with a decision."

I simply decided 2 years ago I would start running. Turns out that has been the most positive influential decision I've made.