Worth It

Soldiers have their alive day.
Countries have their independence day.
Me, I have today.
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September was sleepy, blurred together by early nights and often painful morning runs or equally painful weekend long runs, too much pasta and not enough beer, too many band aids, too many braces and ice packs, too many miles and too many playlists. And finally at the end of the month, a departure from my normal routine and here I awoke, in the midst of something quiet and unexpected. It's taken me more time than I would have figured to get to this point, more time than seemingly necessary to evolve and come out of this dark and endless tunnel, not only alive....but better, stronger (in every sense of the word), faster, newer...happier. If someone were to tell me that this is how it would pan out, I wouldn't have believed them. I couldn't have believed them. The way it was should have been the way it would always be. And for that moment, in that time, that was acceptable; that was what I knew; what I wanted, even. But at the end of the day, when the laces come untied and the blistered bleeding feet emerge, it is, in fact, exactly how it panned out. And while it may have taken me a hell of a lot longer than I ever could have imagined, it's not about my finishing time, I've said that before...it's about how I got to that finish line that matters most. No one thing or one person can tarnish or change that, for the journey on the way here, while lonely, dark and full of hills, I have to say, was worth enduring. I get to live the first day of the rest of my life however I so choose. And that in itself makes the long journey totally worth it.