Friendly Friday - Jaime Theler

First of all, a big thanks to Christine for inviting me to be a guest on her blog! (Yes, someone loves me. *sniff*) She said I could write about whatever I wanted, and so, lucky readers, I’m going to talk a little about running, a little about writing, and a little about life.

I love to run, and I especially love running in these (crazy) relay races that usually wind through back country, up and down mountains, and go all day and night. In fact, I’ve run 4 of these 180+ mile relays in the last year (2 of them in the last 7 weeks).  In the most recent race I had 3 separate legs to run.
Altogether I ran over 18 miles in a 24 hour period, and the longest (and hardest) leg was in the middle of the night.

I trained hard for weeks for this race. I dragged myself out of bed when I would rather sleep. I ran miles in the heat to get used to it. And I pushed myself over and over again.
Race day came and I did my part, and I did pretty good. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t easy. It was often daunting. And at times it was dang hard. By the end of the race I was incredibly sore, very tired (30 minutes of sleep total), and definitely stinky (no shower).  I was hammered, and so was the rest of my team.

You may be asking (and several people have), “Why would anyone do something like that?” Because of the satisfaction of looking at that mountain and knowing that no matter what it takes, you are going to beat it. And here’s the key: then you do it.

The sense of accomplishment that comes with that lasts long after the sore muscles recover and the fatigue fades.  Because no matter what, you know that you did it. And that makes it all worth it.

The things that are really worth it aren’t easy. They’re often daunting. And at times they’re dang hard. You work to prepare, even when you might not feel like it. You push yourself. And then when crunch time comes, you do it.

So look at the challenging things you want to accomplish in your writing or in your life, put in the work to prepare, and then do it.

Because it’s worth it.

Jaime Theler is the co-author of two non-fiction LDS books, and is currently seeking representation for her MG/YA fantasy books. She is a slightly crazy mom of three and is addicted to reading, writing, running, Twitter, and To-Do lists. As such, her blogs often contain mentions of at least one of those things. She also likes to sing along with the music on the radio, much to the embarrassment of her children.


Follow Jaime at her blog, www.jaimetheler.blogspot.com; and find out more about her and her books at her website, www.jaimetheler.com;. You can also follow her on Twitter, as http://twitter.com/bookmom2000
or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jaimetheler.

***Thanks for being my guest Jaime. I can't imagine running that far and the training that must be involved, but I can testify to the hard work it takes to become published. I'm still warming up at the starting line for my own race. 

My guest next week will be Michelle Ashman Bell