Author: Carrie Siubutt

Today is a new day, every day is a new opportunity to redefine yourself and to remind yourself to smile.  I ran about 7 miles today, by myself and very thrilled at the strength my legs have these days.  It is often easy to convince yourself of what you can’t do.  The harder challenge is to remind yourself what you CAN do.  Believing in yourself is hard.  I found myself today over a cup of coffee with an old friend remembering the obstacles I have overcome.  The fact that when I was 11, DBS didn’t exist and here I am today training for my 3rd half marathon.  

It is simply amazing what belief in yourself can bring, how happiness can be found in the littlest actions.  Today my happy moment was high fiving the hands on the GG bridge.  Tomorrow it will be seeing someone I haven’t seen in a little while.  Who knows what life brings and remember its okay sometimes to be sad and acknowledge the sadness.  But the next day wake up and say, “I am a bad a$$”.

You know what I said this morning – you are a Bad A$$ go get those 7 miles.  Done and Done.  Be inspired.  Dream Big!

I am back.  I am so sorry, I havent been keeping up with this blog but somehow life got in the way and I realized today as much as some of you need my blog, I need it too.  I am running a half marathon on November 4th and I have 3 weeks to get it done!  AHHHHHH!!!!  But I am amazing and I will get it done!  Would love some words of encouragement to get these next 3 weeks done…I promise all of you that read this blog, that I am back and never leaving again!

2.5 miles.

To some 2.5 miles means nothing, to me it means the world.  For the first time in my life, I ran 2.5 miles without stopping.  I couldn’t do it without the help of my new coach, coach Matt 🙂  He was there for me when he saw me wanting to give up, when he said in his tough love voice – do you want to be a quitter? My first instinct was “No”.  Quitters don’t give up.  I didn’t quit. I gave it my all and I ran 2.5 miles without stopping.

It is my dream to run 6 miles without stopping, it is my new goal.  It is attainable.  Every time Matt said are you going to quit, I thought about all the Dystonia kids that often do quit and have yet to read about someone who tries.  I know that childhood dream of mine to run the 4×100 in the olympics will never happen, but I do know to run 6 miles nonstop for some is a jog in the park but for me it is truly a goal I have set for myself.  And I won’t quit, what I will do is train and train properly.  I won’t give up.  I will run 6 miles and my journey begins.  One of the lessons learned about watching the Olympics is that these athletes train and they never quit.  World, watch me run 6 miles without stopping!  

Be thankful.  Excitement. November 4.

I woke up this morning and hopped in the shower as normal and my first thought was – I am thankful I am running a race.  I am thankful I CAN run a race.  I am thankful that Matt believes in me and wants to be with me as I cross the finish line.  The sheer excitement to run a race made me feel alive today.  The oh here is what isn’t working right with me attitude went away.  I am very excited and I am very thankful.  As much as Dystonia can be hard, I reminded myself that I was strong enough to lace up and spread the word about Dystonia, not about what I can’t do, but about what I can do!

I am thankful.  I am lucky.  I am running.  November 4, 2012…watch me run for all of those that can’t.

Glamping – the new running?

This weekend for my bday I tried to do something sporty – I went Glamping!!! I went for a couple of long hikes and survived.  I am learning that there are other ways to be sporty other than running!  I climbed 1100 feet and at times I thought I was going to give up, but I knew myself well enough to know that I am not a quitter.  I don’t give up, I just take longer…but I finish….and I realized this week endfinishing is the most rewarding feeling of accomplishment.  So to all my athletes reading this, dig deep, realize you can finish and just remember whether you finish a marathon in 4 hours or 7 hours and 5 minutes, you are still a winner!  You took the step to get off your couch, now put your game face on and finish your goals!

New learnings.  I have been in Ghana for over a week now and I am realizing the power of the Internet and the Blog.  I have met several Ghanaians who have come up to me and said “I have read your blog tell me more about your running”.  I often forget about the blog so I am always surprised when people bring it up.  I get slowly reminded of how powerful my little blog can be.  I forget when a new young person googles “Dystonia”  I may pop up.  I forget that I am the little blog that can.

Life isn’t perfect nor is the Dystonia,  but I do hope that when I write I can inspire someone new.  I ran my first race of 2012 several weeks ago and it was amazing.  I was shocked how hard a 10K felt, I was shocked I ran a marathon – 26.2 miles and then I remembered how amazing I can be.  How amazing I am when I put my mind to something, in those moments I literally feel like I can move mountains.  I often forget race day, but I am learning that I need to remember that feeling again of crossing the finish line….

So it took a trip to Ghana to remind me to write in my blog more often, to hope that people are still inspired by me and lastly to remind myself of how strong I am…and that no matter how many times I fall (and I will) what matters is how fast I get back up!

Yay!  Back on the horse!!  Did my first 10K today and it was amazing!! I was a little afraid to run again since the marathon but I did and it was awesome!!!  I am learning having someone believing in you is also helpful!  I am very proud of my 10K today.  It was one of my best and one of my strongest!!!  Pictures to come!!!