Ice Breaker – Athletic Claim To Fame
Image by VerseVend (via Flickr – Creative Commons)
Each week on The Stretched Blog, I ask an ice breaker question. The questions are designed to help us get to know each other here in The Stretched Community. I’ll provide my answer to the question here in the post, and then you can leave your response in the comments. While you’re in the comments section, see how others answered the ice breaker question.
Today, Hannah is running at the district cross-country meet being held at Lehigh University. Tuesday, I mentioned about her year of cross-country and her positive attitude. Today’s Stretched Ice Breaker is inspired by her accomplishments this season.
Question: What is your athletic claim to fame? What accomplishment from your athletic past brings you the most pride?
My Answer: For a while, I would say dunking a basketball was my biggest athletic accomplishment. My answer has changed over the past several years. I’ve run 3 marathons in the past 10 years. The first one in Philadelphia was tough, because I didn’t really know what to expect. The last one in the Bronx was different taking place on a narrow trail in a park in the city on Thanksgiving Day. My second marathon in Baltimore was my slowest marathon thanks to a strained IT Band and a hilly course, but it’s the one I’m most proud of completing. Around 13 miles into the race, my IT Band acted up leaving me to struggle with walking and running the next 13 miles of the race. There was a part of me that wanted to give up, but there was also part of me that wanted to finish what I started. I kept telling myself to find a way to run across the finish line, so my kids could see me finishing strong despite the pain of my injury. I saw my kids about 300 yards from the finish line. They were holding signs and cheering for me as loud as they could. As I crossed the finish line, I remember tearing up. I was proud of my accomplishment, and I was emotional with the uncertainty that I would ever be able to do this again. If you’ve ever run a marathon before, you know it takes a great deal of training time and effort to prepare for running this type of race.
Answer this week’s ice breaker question by leaving a comment. I look forward to reading your response! (As always, feel free to share links.) And keep STRETCHING!
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