I had another post planned for today but had to tell you about my experience this past weekend!

First a bit of background…..You all know that I love running and after a 15 year hiatus from Ultrarunning (more than 26.2 miles), I have gotten back into it in the past 3 years.  One of my first attempts at a 100 mile race was in 1998 at Umstead 100 miler in North Carolina. However, I only made it 50 miles that day. So, when I was back on the scene again so to speak, 3 years ago, I found out when registration for Umstead was. I remember because I was at work that day (even though it was Saturday) and failing to do the time zone math I was an hour late in attempting to register and therefore didn’t get in (it gets sold out in a few minutes).

Then last year when I really felt I could do a good job and complete Umstead in the required time limit, I had the registration date on my calendar for months. On registration day I had 3 computers going to try to get registered. After 20-30 minutes to no avail I was not able to get in. I was so frustrated with the technology and angry etc.

But you know what? It worked out best for everyone because March (the month of the race) was when I was sick for 8 weeks. I would not have been able to attend the race even if I had gotten in.

I forgot about Umstead focusing instead on the Tennessee event this July and keeping my training all directed toward that. Umstead was no where on my antenna.

This past Saturday morning I was doing something and remembered that it was September and idly wondered “hmm…I wonder when Umstead registration is”. So, when I was done with whatever I was doing, I pulled it up on the website and started laughing when I saw that registration was THAT DAY! When I was done laughing I looked at the clock and saw that I had time to go for a decent run and still be back in time to try to register. I was smiling during the entire 6 miles I was running. I really didn’t have any emotion other than wonderment at how things played out…why did I even think about that particular race that morning. There was no hint, nothing about any other runs or anything about North Carolina, nothing.

When I returned home, I had plenty of time to pull up the website and log in the event site. When 11 a.m. came round I clicked on the “register now” button and got to the page where I could fill out the forms. When I filled them out and hit submit, I was astonished when the website proclaimed “Congratulations, you’re registered for the 2015 Umstead 100 mile race”. I have wanted to do this race again since I didn’t finish it in 1998 and here I was getting to go again. Finally.

I had let it go from my experience, from my consciousness, from my emotions and vibrations. But because I had put it out there to the Universe 3 years ago when I first tried, the Universe knew I wanted it and since I had let go of the feeling of lack and disappointment I had after not getting in the last two years. It was out of my thoughts. Nothing negative about it was planted there. I had found other things to do and put my energies on (multi-day events, Tennessee trek, etc). Clearing my mind about this race was effectively allowing it to materialize in my life. It had manifested when I told the Universe 3 years ago that I wanted to do it and throughout everything else that’s happened, it was “delivered” to my doorstep…waiting for me to open the door and allow it in.

I probably have had other events like this before but I can’t remember any that was as dramatic as this was.

It taught me once more that you just have to let go of the emotions attached to things in order for them to appear in your life. What’s the take-away? Find something else to occupy your mind and move your life along into other things when you don’t think something is coming that you’re sure you want. I was sure I wanted this but in wanting it so much, I was focusing on not being able to get in (the failure from the first year had hung over me the second year and was compounded by the fact that the internet chatter was all about how hard it was to get in since everyone tries right at the appointed time. And I had let myself be influenced negatively by all of that. When I moved on to other things in my life, the item I desired came right into my life. And I  thought about it at the proper time and day so that I had no time to cultivate anything negative. In fact, I was adding positive energy to my chances because I was so amused at my timing.  Just amazing!

Terrie