The Hill

We’ve had a lot more free time to do our walks and runs lately.

We take daily walk/runs in our neighborhood.   There’s an amazing back street that’s about a mile and a half long.  It’s perfect for running–when I’m doing it solo, I do it twice so I can get in a nice three miles.

When Callie and I do it, we talk about running the 5k.

We talk about what the weather is going to be like….

We talk about what we are going to wear….

We talk about what song we hope is playing when we are coming in the home stretch….

We talk about how we are going to hold hands as we cross the finish line…..

We talk about how her Daddy is going to scoop her up and give her a huge hug when she’s done…..

And then we get to a point on the walk, where we hit “the hill.”

It’s not a huge hill by any means, but when you have a prosthetic leg, it looks like Everest.

And then we talk about how we take the hill…..because the 5K will have hills.

Just like life does.

So we don’t slow down.

We don’t stop.

We keep the pace.

Because in life, how you take the hill is everything.

I want her to be able to visualize that success.

To be able to know that she’s going to push past some hard stuff, just like she’s done countless times before.

I want her to be able to know that she is going to have a rowdy cheering section when we cross the finish line.

I want her to learn that setting a goal and doing the work matter.

I want her to learn that what she focuses on will grow.

I want her to know that she can become what she believes.

I want her to know that when our legs get tired, we will run with our hearts.

So we are out there on the roads everyday.

Training our legs…..and our minds.