The Breaking Point

Three years ago I was always frazzled. I had become a mom who yelled a lot and always collapsed at the end of the day in exhaustion.

I did not like this version of myself.

I knew running had always kept me steady, so I thought I would give it another try.

I suffer from incontinence while running, but I told myself “just ten minutes.”

So I would run a half mile to the stoplight and back to equal one mile.

I listened to only one song on my ten minute runs: Beautiful Things by Gungor.

The chorus says:

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

I would run in the dark so no one would see me cry the whole 10 minutes. I hated that my post-baby body didn’t work how it used to.

I wanted to curse and kick things, but instead I ran.

Hearing those lyrics over and over for 10 minutes reminded me this would one day be a beautiful thing.

One Day

That ten minutes slowly grew over the last three years, and now I prepare to run 13 miles tomorrow.

The beautiful thing is here…today is “one day.”

The beautiful thing is not just running 13 miles, but the journey to this point.

All those tear-filled 10 minute runs created this beautiful thing, this journey.

The starting line will be a beautiful thing.

The finish line will be a beautiful thing.

And every moment from here on out is a beautiful thing.

Thank you to all my loved ones who made this beautiful thing happen.

-Brittany