By Pallavi Sharma
“Inspiration is contagious. Once inspired, you can do anything”. As I read this quote every time I walk into Lifetime, it takes me back on a brief tour of my past. It reminds me of all the highly charged and motivated people who had inspired me greatly to grow and blossom into a well-rounded individual. Be it friends, family or even people I briefly met, its amazing to see the deep-rooted impact their attitude has had on my life.
I distinctly remember my brief interaction with Mary at our yoga sculpt class at CorePower Yoga. She seemed to effortlessly fit in all the four sought after categories: Fit, Healthy, Strong and Lean, which rarely seems to be the case with most people. Her glowing and friendly personality quickly drew me into striking a conversation with her and that’s how our friendship grew, and so did the process of inspiration. Till date there hasn’t been a day when I have not been in complete awe of this splendid woman and the first thing that struck me about her is that she is a die-hard runner. As she began unveiling her little secret about her exceptional level of fitness, I realized that she’s a 3 to 4 time a year marathoner which reflects her intense passion and love for running. That’s when I started to incorporate her good habits in my life and began running. This was around May when she motivated me a great extent in taking baby steps towards a marathon someday, and here I am having completed my first 5K and feeling utterly joyous and proud.
As I touched the finish line with people cheering and screaming for me, my heart over-flowed with emotions of victory and achievement. Being the 25th or the 26th person to finish the race out of 600 participants was no child’s play for a first timer. It definitely was tougher than it seems because shorter runs are always the hardest. You have less time to finish them, which leads to pretty much sprinting all the way through. I saw my months of hard-work pay off so beautifully that it has brought about a major sense of confidence me. My next run is on October 3rd, 2009 which is the Medtronics Twin Cities Race ( http://www.mtcmarathon.org/FiveKAndFamilyEvents/FamilyEvents.cfm ). This will be a much bigger and more competitive platform and I dearly hope to do decently well at it.
Here’s a short video of me which my friend captured minutes after the race. Check it out!
