As much as I've said it before to many, still well worth writing in my blog that Teens Run Yonkers participation in the Yonkers Half Marathon was nothing short of amazing and inspiring beyond what I could have ever hoped for. Watching 21 Teens and Running Leaders line up at the start line as a team - unified in purpose, confident in ability and exciting about their challenge was a thrill. But to see them at the end - OK in reality I came in after many but was so happy to run in with Avery, one of our hardest working and dedicated teens was great - seeing them so excited for their accomplishment
was exactly why we do this.
The minute you step over the finish line - one you never imagined you could cross - tells you the world about yourself. It tells you that you set a goal, an amazingly challenging goal that was important to you and you made it happen. And as important as our mentors are, your dedication to this was what made it happen. That is something you have forever and I'm confident it's the message these folks walked with - in addition to the t-shirt and medal (OK they're pretty cool too!)
I could write a lot more - and perhaps tomorrow when I'm better rested I will. To sum it up thought, what one of our teens wrote on their Facebook page said it all - he wrote
"today was the greatest day of my life - I finished the Yonkers Half Marathon. But my legs hurt"
The thing I love is that 1) that's a "good" hurt 2) that will go away in a day or so and most importantly 3) that feeling of it being the best WILL NOT go away. It will stay there and be a constant motivator!
There's tons of pics on our Facebook page so please check those out at:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teens-Run-Yonkers/130787670273053?ref=hl
We were also thrilled to be a featured story in the Yonkers Daily Voice: http://yonkers.dailyvoice.com/news/teens-run-yonkers-group-building-future-leaders
and had our picture in the cover story for the race: http://yonkers.dailyvoice.com/sports/hometown-pair-set-pace-87th-yonkers-marathon
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