The Little Things
May 11, 2015

As you might remember, I went into my last half feeling really unsure of myself, primarily due to my training (as I mentioned before, the three weeks surrounding/while I was in Mexico, which were my peak weeks, included absolutely no running), and even considered dropping down to the 5k instead. And then, shockingly, I pulled out a course PR (this was my 3rd time running the race), and was only 5 minutes off my current half marathon PR. I was elated.

Indy Mini Race

(running on the speedway)

I called my parents as I was driving home from the race, still in shock of the race that I managed to pull off that morning. My dad asked “so what does this race tell you?” I paused for a moment, remembering the last line that I had engraved on my Road ID at Christmas: “Stronger Than Before”.

I said “It shows that I’m stronger than I was before. That even with worse training my overall base is better than it was two years ago. I’m stronger than I used to be”. He said “exactly”… and then we continued to talk about the race.

stonger than before

But my mind stayed there. I AM stronger than I was before… not just in running, but with POTS overall. With POTS, gains and progress come in small little steps, and they are often easy to miss. I get caught up in the frustrations that POTS cause in running, and sometimes I forget to step back and see the bigger picture- that I am making gains, even if they are very small.

I am stronger than before, and today I want to celebrate that.

Now it’s your turn to share! How are you stronger than you were before?

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4 responses to “Stronger Than Before”

  1. Rachel Denler says:
    May 11, 2015 at 11:19 am

    This strongly resonates with me… I think we all tend to overlook small accomplishments in life because we are always so future-focused. How much more confident would we all be if we focused more on small gains?

    • littlethingscaroline@gmail.com says:
      May 11, 2015 at 1:02 pm

      I’m glad you could connect. We do overlook the small things (disqualify the positive), and I absolutely agree that we would feel much better if we focused on the small accomplishments! A good goal for all of us, right? 🙂

  2. Abby @ BackAtSquareZero says:
    May 13, 2015 at 8:27 pm

    Woohoo. You are so amazing. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in huge things we forget to notice all the smaller victories. Amazing.