This past weekend was all about achieving goals – my daughter and I brought home medals!
On Saturday, she competed at the Regional Science Olympiad. She participated in three events. It was quite ambitious. I’ve seen her slack off, work harder, and finally cram for it. I told her, “The probability of you getting a medal is 9x; I think you’ll get one or some. Do your best, that is all that matters.”
Lo and behold, she and her partner placed in two of them. This exceeded my expectations. I’ve seen her grow since she first joined the club last year. Yes, I’m guilty of signing her up. I had to deal with few grumblings, but I knew she would enjoy it. There’s a cliché that says, “Mothers know best,” right? This is one of those. 🙂 She has enjoyed and thrived ever since. It requires extra work on top of schoolwork, but each time she reaps the rewards — medals, smiles, and pride — I see joy in her eyes. Their school finished 4th overall out of nearly 30 schools. They are advancing to the State Competition in a month! She’s pumped up! I am thrilled for her.
“It feels good,” she shared. I smiled back and said, “Congratulations, you deserve it.” It was a proud mom moment as I watched her from afar taking those medals.
Hold on, it doesn’t end there.
After nearly 12 hours at that event, I had to hit the bed as soon as I could to wake up early in the morning for my half-marathon race. I’ve been running every other day, but I had stopped for about two months. I just resumed running and started my training three weeks ago in preparation for a May half-marathon. Running last weekend’s race wasn’t part of my plan. It was a sold-out event, but someone couldn’t make it, and I seized the opportunity.
Despite being only on Week 3 of my training, I thought it would be a great way to measure my pre- and post-training times. Yes, I was that half-crazy, especially after 12 exhausting hours at a school competition. I woke up at 4:30 am to prepare for my 7 am race. I had only a week to set my mind to it, because, as another saying goes, “Your body achieves what your mind believes.”
My first half-marathon was three years ago. Back then, I was running consistently, though without proper training, I still finished at 2:10. This time, since I hadn’t been running much or training properly, I aimed for a 2:10-2:20 finish. I joined the Tobacco Road Marathon/Half-Marathon with over 4,000 participants from 33 different states. It was an amazing race. The support and cheering along the road were incredible. I almost fell several times. I remember struggling at Mile 2, but I told myself, “this is just warm up, I am just starting.” I couldn’t exactly describe the exhaustion, joy, pain, and excitement all at the same time. I keep telling myself I am going to finish this. I remember the last 3 miles, another runner passed me by and said, “you can do this, only 5 kms to go.” Another spectator said, “you are looking really good and strong, go for it, finish strong.” I probably teared up. I decided to sprint on that last mile, with all I have left. I was shocked when I reached the finish line and realized I had finished at 2 hours and 1 minute!!! I was in disbelief. I, again, exceeded my expectations.
This weekend was all about testing our limits. It was about setting our mind to our goal and giving it our best shot. This weekend was about outperforming and bringing medals home! This weekend was celebrating women’s strength!
So yeah, don’t limit yourself. It’s okay to try… and try again. But also, we need to put in the hard work to achieve what we set out to attain. It’s never too late to reach some goals or create new ones.
You can do great things. Try it; it might just surprise you, too!