Last Saturday I ran in my hometowns annual 10K race. It is held every year on the 3rd weekend in August. It's the same weekend as the town's annual festival and rodeo. I know y'all are thinking in California a rodeo? It's a small little mountain community and it definitely doesn't feel like California some times. I remember driving into town every year while I was in High School going to meet up with all my friends before the big parade started. This was always the weekend before school started so it was the weekend that you would see ALL of classmates and friends that you haven't seen over summer for the first time in months. While I drove into town I would always see that huge group of people who just got done running the annual 5K/10K race. At that time I had no idea how long 5K or 10K was all I knew was that those people were running and that I would never in my life be part of that group that I was driving past. I mean come on I was in high school that is prime running age and I couldn't run a entire mile, in P.E. class. The other part of me thought who in their right mind would wake up that early to RUN!!!!! Only in my dreams would I ever be a part of that group who RAN! Fast forward 13 years and here I am running down those same streets that those "crazy people" were running all those years ago, and these are all the thoughts going thru my head. WOW I am a runner. I am one of those people that the now high school kids are watching run into the festival entrance thinking these people are crazy! Who wakes up at 6:00am in the middle of freaking summer to run a 10K what the heck is a 10K?! At that moment I felt proud! I felt blessed to be able to run, to have had the power to turn my life around and find this passion for running. If I would have never crossed over and challenged myself to run one mile straight thru just one short year ago, I would have never found this passion and love for the RUN. I ended up placing in last weekends 10K race, that was the icing on cake of that little dream I once had 13 years ago. I turned that Impossible into I'M POSSIBLE!!!! Yes it takes a few months to find your grove and your pace but once you hit that moment for the first time.... that moment you only know if you have love for the run.... that moment in your run when it no longer feels like you are running but that you are bouncing off fluffy white clouds. That is the moment you know that you are a runner. My birthday is this Wednesday 8/28 I am turning 31 years old. It is my 5K birthday. As co-creator of Flex it Pink we are hosting a Virtual 5K race online through our face book page CLICK HERE join the race in the events section. Post your run/walk/bike ride/jogging/crawling whatever it is that you enjoy doing for 3.1 miles in the event and you will be entered for a free Flex it Pink Tee or Tank and we will be giving some more random things away for participation. I just want to try to encourage some that may have never thought they were a runner or think that could never do it. Because guess what YOU CAN!!!!! The running community is one of the most enjoyable communities to be a part of. You will never be judged on your pace, your size, your color, your weight, your clothes! But what a runner will do when he or she sees you out there putting in those miles is give you a high five, a smile, a nod, a fist pump. Runners celebrate every step and we all run the same miles in the race as the person in front of us and the person behind us! Just getting out there makes you a winner! If this post encourages one person to try to hit the pavement then my mission is complete! I hope you all join us in our virtual 5K this Wednesday.