Gratitude

I woke up yesterday and the foggy exhaustion from after the race was gone and I felt amazing. Yes my body was sore but my overwhelming feeling was one of gratitude. I always thought that my goal to run a marathon was one I held alone. I thought that people were asking how my training was going because they were kind and polite, not because they were actually genuinely interested in how I was going. I found myself holding back a lot, not wanting to put them out by flooding them with the constant flow of 'marathon-marathon-marathon' that was happening in my head (clearly I reserved that for the blog and for poor Danny).

But then, in the days before the race, amazing messages of support started flooding in. Not just from the expected but from completely out-of-the-blue sources. Sponsorship from old belly dancing class buddies, heartfelt emails of support from friends of friends, offers to be there to cheer me on from workmates willing to give up their precious Sunday morning and, of course, blog readers from all over the world sending their best wishes... I realised that I wasn't the only one invested in achieving this goal, all of these people were right there with me. I might have been physically running the race alone but every single one of them was there with me in spirit willing me to that finish line.

This is not lost on me. To even have the ability to even run a marathon and to have such an amazing and unrelenting support team behind me... I am truly blessed, humbled and full of gratitude.

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I'd Like To Know...

What makes you grateful?