Medal of Bravery

My heart sank as I unpacked the last of 5,237 boxes Monday night.

No race medals.

I've run 4 half marathons and countless races of other distances, and now had nothing to show for it.

When I started packing and preparing to move to Florida from New Jersey last July, I knew stuff would get lost. Damaged. Ruined. It wasn't really of major concern for me as I don't place a lot of value on my possessions. Everything is replaceable.

Except my race medals. I only get to run my first half marathon once. There will only ever be one inaugural Star Wars Rebel Challenge.

I tried not to panic. I tried telling myself none of these races mattered. The half marathons all just broke my heart when I didn't reach my sub 2:00 goal. Losing my medals meant I'd get a do-over, right?

Lies. All of my races matter to me. That time I ran 200 miles. My first race ever. Running over two giant bridges because, well, why not? Not every race brought me personal records, but they all have stories. My race medals were the tangible representations of each story, awarded to me for innumerable hours of sweat and training.

And they were gone. I went to bed Monday night feeling like I lost some of my best friends.

So you can imagine my joy when my husband woke me up shortly after I went to bed to share this:

The Avengers Movie Marathon "medal" on the end is Ben's. He's particularly proud of that one.

There was one box labeled "Office Decorations" that we had put away since we aren't quite ready to decorate anything yet. He opened it up on a whim and, well, jackpot.

Looking forward to adding three more medals to the collection come April.

71 days left.

Today's Exercise:  Rest

Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
Raisin Bran, coffee	Fried fish, brussels sprouts	HC Latte	Rotisserie chicken, okra, hot cocoa