A very important question

I'm sitting here enjoying the sweet taste of our Spartan victory this afternoon and finishing up this story I started last week.  So my very important question is this, "What's the worst that can happen?"  I usually ask myself this question when I am contemplating doing something crazy or when I'm trying to make important life decisions. I think this is why some people call me crazy, but I think I'm the sane one.  I take chances. I try new things.  And I generally never pass up a dare.   I've learned that you typically won't regret the things you do, it's the things you pass up out of fear or self doubt, that haunt you. So, this simple question serves as a catalyst for a lot of awesome things in my life.

In fact, I asked myself this very question last year when the Grand Haven Run Club asked me to run in the inaugural 5-Mile Hill Challenge-(FYI it's an awesome event where 10 super stellar runners gather pledges per lap for running repeats on the infamous 5-Mile Hill in Grand Haven for 45 minutes.) In its first year, over $20,000 was gathered  for a school in Zambia!  It truly is an incredible event with long lasting impact on other human beings which makes my heart happy.  At the time, I was busy battling the beginning stages of sciatica.  I wasn't running much and I was in a lot of pain so when I asked myself the ever telling question, "What's the worst that can happen?" I realized I could end up unable to run at all which is basically in the top five of the worst thing that could happen to me.  Therefore, I politely declined, pledged a bunch of the runners who did participate and moved on with my recovery efforts. Thankfully, I have pretty much made a full recovery although I still feel tension at times in my sciatic nerve so I know it is still lingering...

Fast forward a year and I was asked to participate in the 5-Mile Hill Challenge again. Given my unpredictable sciatica situation, I hesitated briefly.  I prayed on it for a day, talked to a few of my closest friends and asked myself, "What's the worst that can happen?".  I figure the worst that can happen this time, is my sciatica flares up and I will have to walk instead of run. Hopefully, this won't become my reality, but if it is I am mentally prepared to deal with it and I will still complete as many laps as possible.  So I said Yes!!! Once I committed to participate, I started gathering motivational quotes to help power me through this incredible challenge and I started practicing a lot of running on 5-mile hill. Here's the best wisdom I've found so far...

Apparently there are myriad reasons to run hills. Here are 5 solid ones.

I try to keep this thing in perspective. It's just a hill after all--5-Mile Hill!  I'll get over it someday!

The best part about the hill challenge is there are other awesome people in this with me:

 In an attempt to be a stronger runner, I've been running a lot of hills, stretching and doing yoga.  I've always kind of liked hills, but now that I'm committed to the hill challenge, I've become a hill seeker.  Let me know if you find any good ones and I'll plan to run them!

During my third outing on hills in preparation for the upcoming event, I actually felt like I'm getting better.  I only had to walk once to catch my breath so I'm definitely improving. Last week I walked too many times to count!  Thanks to Michele for running all my hills with me and...

Thanks to everyone who has already donated: Kristi, Krist, Christy, Steve, Mird, Nicky, Nikki, Richard, Matt, Timothy, Patrick, Marisa, Lisa, Shahla, Karla, Jamie, Cindy and Brian.  I truly appreciate your financial support so much and so do the kids in Zambia! Also prayers and running companionship on March 13th would be awesome too!  If everyone who knows me donated just $1 per lap (roughly $6), I would likely gather the most pledges!!! And then I can nominate the benefit agencies for the next hill challenge!

If you're interested in pledging my laps for this challenge Click Here!

I've already decided...

This is my favorite motivational quote!

Hill training partners are awesome!

PS SUPER special thanks to Jane for being my first pledger! You're the best!!

Vern Out running hills again in the morning!!