In August 2018, I organized a vision board workshop through my brand, Mivida. At the workshop, we set our goals for the remaining months in 2018 and then made vision boards for our goals.
For me, I was able to achieve over 70% of the goals I set. One of the few I didn’t achieve was the goal to participate in a marathon, in reality, the goal was to participate in the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon which I had thought would take place in January 2019. It later took place on February 2, 2019.
Somehow, I didn’t get to know about the marathon early enough, so I missed the registration deadline. Anyways, I decided to still participate and through my friend who works at Access Bank, I got a kit (special shout-out to her).
After getting the kit, which basically is a knapsack that has a t-shirt, a tag number and a gift, mine was a chocolate peanut bar; I bought my sneakers, joggers and really started being consistent in taking my blood capsules daily; I also picked up my workout schedule so I could be fit enough for the race.
Few days before the marathon, I fell ill and had to take anti-malaria medication, but there ain’t no stopping me (smiles).
Already, I had planned to do the marathon with some of my friends so it would be fun. There were a few hitches and glitches, but they came and went and the marathon day came.
I was to participate in the 10km marathon and take off point was Lekki Admiralty way, close to the Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge. I left home around past 5 am and used Taxify so I could get to the island before the 3rd mainland bridge was closed for the race (Did I mention that it rained heavily on the mainland that morning?).
I got there way before 7 am with the assumption that the race would start by 7 am, however that was not the case, we didn’t start the 10km race till 8:51 am. We were to run from the starting point, through Lekki Toll Gate to Falomo to Eko Atlantic.
I am really glad I ran with my friends, we ran, jogged, walked, danced, and took pictures. It was fun and not so tiring. Thankfully, Nonso’s (the only guy in my squad) phone was da it, we had Chioma, a great photographer in our midst and Mary was our dance teacher and picture enthusiast, so we were able to dance, run and play with empty water bottles on the road and also take fine pictures and of course, we got to the finish line around 11.30 am.
Read about My Trip to Omu Resort
By the way, Eko Atlantic is beautiful and has a nice view.
In all, I’m glad I participated in the marathon, it felt great doing something new and invigorating (More pictures at the end of the post).
Few Lessons Learned:
- If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go in a team. Doing the marathon with friends made it more fun and gave me the courage to keep going even when I was tired.
- Appeal to people in the right way and watch how they’ll come through. It was amazing to see the number of people who came out to participate in both the 10km and 42km marathon. It was like Lagos came out for something they could relate with and they liked. This reminded me of the election if there was someone that could really pull people out of their house on election day to come out en-masse and vote, wouldn’t that be nice?
- The attraction of a reward is powerful. Watching the people who came all the way from Surulere to Eko Atlantic even after most people have left just so they can get their medal, I was intrigued. A lesson for me is this, a way to get people motivated sometimes is to let them know the reward of what they are doing
- In running the race to heaven, there’ll be distractions, discouragement, etc, but those are not reason enough to give up. Walk with the right people, keep your gaze focused, count your wins and keep praying for grace and God grace will see us through.
Did you participate in the marathon? How was it? Hope your body is not aching too much?
P.S: My brand, Mivida is organizing a goal setting masterclass and it takes place on the 9th of February. It is an online masterclass and it is going to be amazing. Details on how to participate are on the fliers below.
Let the pictures tell the remaining story:
