Accountability partners are key

Today I ran a marathon relay! It is actually a really cool concept. You get a team of 5 to split up a marathon into 5 legs. I got leg 3: 5.5 miles. I did a 10K a few years ago but other than that, this was the longest race I have ever done!

But it almost didn't happen. I almost gave up before I began.

The start times for each leg were kind of a guessing game. We had sort of estimated how long it was going to take everyone to run and made a plan to be at our exchange points the day prior. The first girl in our group was having a great day and so we were ahead of schedule...which meant that I had to hurry up and get to the exchange point earlier than I planned.

Jake was dropping me off. As soon as he got close I jumped out and headed toward where all the people are. If you have ever done a race, you know the start points can be a little confusing with people all over, tents and flags all over the place. At this point I was a little frantic as my teammate was almost there to hand off the baton but I couldn't find the exchange zone.

I finally found an event staff person and they kindly directed me to where I needed to go. I said a quick "Thanks!" and turned around to head toward the start line. Well I twirled around straight into a pine tree branch.

The branch went straight into my eye.

I immediately felt shock, annoyance, humiliation then pain.

I knew I had to get to the exchange zone as Emily was headed my way. So I kinda shook my head and jogged over to wait for her. Then my eye started to really water. And my vision got cloudy. Again my mind started racing...

Did I knock my contact out? Did it roll into the back of my head? Did I scratch my eye? Oh great! I scratched my eye and I leave for a trip on Friday and have no time to see the doctor. Can I even do this race any more?

But then I remembered that my teammates were relying on me. I couldn't give up because I would be letting them down. They were running so well that day. They had trained for this. And they were cheering me on.

I had no choice but to suck it up and do the race with a sore, blurry eye. For my team.

And guess what? It wasn't all that bad. Half-way through my contact righted itself and I could at least see better. My eye was still sore but I could enjoy the scenery of the race. And we had a killer race!! We did amazing!

But if I had not been part of a team. If I had been there alone, I would have bailed. I would have given up and left that race.

Accountability matters. We need people in our lives holding us accountable and cheering us on. We too easily talk ourselves out of our goals because goals are hard! One of the best things you can do for yourself when you set a new goal is to get yourself an accountability partner.

But don't just choose anyone! Don't you dare pick the friend or cousin or sibling that will let you off the hook. Pick that person that loves you but won't take your B.S.! Because all of us have some seriously good B.S. when things get hard.

So who will your next partner be?? What freaking awesome goal are you setting next?

For me, it's finding an eye doctor and setting up an appointment.