It is a great feeling, especially when you are struggling (and it would be so much easier to quit) but you don't give up. When you dig deep and push through the discomfort and doubt, that is a gift to yourself. Yesterday I hiked a "canyon" in the Franklin Mtns with a group of ladies from my neighborhood. It is basically 2.6 miles up a whole lot of hills and back down again. My running partner and I have done it several times before and among the group of various ages, sizes and fitness levels, we are (haha) considered "the fit ones." I chose to walk beside the lady who was convinced she "couldn't do it, she was too fat, too old (maybe 35

), has high blood pressure, plantar fasciitis, and oh Tess I know you want to power up the hill with so and so, go ahead and leave me here, I'll wait for you to come back down...on and on." Now I'm not a medical doctor but I decided that if she could talk non-stop about what she couldn't do, then she could go up and down that mountain with the rest of us!

She may never speak to me again (I may have said "it's just one more hill" about 6 times!) but she went up and down that mountain. And in between the cursing, panting, and name blaming, there was a real sense of accomplishment and a sense of awe that she did something she really believed to be physically impossible for herself.

We so often see people who are in shape and think either "I wish I could look like that (but I can't)" or "I hate them (just a little bit) because they look like that" but what we don't see is the effort they put into their fitness. I'm never going to be 6 minute-miler or run an ultramarathon but I am going to be fit. I'm going be proud of myself not only for my accomplishment but for putting in the hours and the miles that it takes to achieve it.