Motivation

I've been thinking a lot about what was my motivation to keep running yesterday.  What prompted me to finish the half marathon when I wanted to quit after the first mile?  I had a valid reason.  I was rear ended 3 days earlier.  I had whiplash.  I was in pain.  Running might have made my injuries worse.  Yet for some reason I kept running. 

One thing that really helped me was a sign I saw around mile 3.  It said, "Pain is temporary.  Quitting is forever."  That sign really resonated with me.  I knew that the pain I was in was temporary.  It would go away (for the most part) once I finished.  But if I quit, I would always know that I quit when running my first half marathon - my first race.  I didn't want that hanging over my head. 

I decided to finish it.  While I'm incredibly proud that I did, I'm not proud of my time though.  I'm still hard on myself.  I'm hoping I can learn to focus on the accomplishment more than the final time as time progresses.