Where Your Feet Take You

Welcome to the journey of Where Your Feet Take You.  I am Kayla Lloyd your host on this exciting journey.  Before I delve into this journey let me tell you a little about who I am.  A Pacific Northwest girl I grew up in the small outdoorsy town of Hood River, Oregon which is nestled in between Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams with the beautiful Columbia Gorge to complete the town boundaries.  Now I reside in Spokane, WA where I spend most of time running, biking, swimming, golfing with my fiance, lifting heavy things, and occasionally working.

In all honesty I never believed I would find myself permanently living in Spokane and be able to say that I enjoyed where I lived.  University is what brought me to Spokane in 2007 when I started my bachelors education at Gonzaga University.  While school was school and college was college I did not particularly care for Spokane, always swearing I would get out as soon as my degree was handed to me. Yet, here I am 8 years later living in a city I never believed I would end up and loving every minute of it.

That brings me to the basis of the name of this journey, Where Your Feet Take You.  After graduating from college I have been to many interviews in my path to discover exactly what I want to be when I grow up and I always get asked the same question, "where do you see yourself in five years?"  Now in my opinion this is basically impossible question to answer because how can you actually know.  If you were to ask me that question five years ago my answer would have been no where close to what I am actually doing but that is the beauty of life, its complete and utter unpredictability.  Previous to me writing to you know I spent many years trying my utmost to follow the path I believed I was supposed to be on to the strictest.  During that time things kept constantly being thrown at me from angles and I found myself wallowing more and more in a hole of stress, anxiety, and insecurity because for some reason I just wasn't succeeding on this path.  One day I just finally had enough, now the path that led me to this realization is a long and not particularly interesting one so I will spare you the details, and realized it did not matter any more.  I realized I could never accomplish my dreams if I focused so hard on the path rather I needed to let my soul, and / or feet, do the leading; I realized that I needed to remove myself from the ever suppressing ideal that there was only one path, and only one destination but rather that the opportunities were endless.  At this point I glanced up from the single minded track I had been following and began to realize that there are many detours, side tracks, and obstacles that make up a path. I found that the key to navigating through these was to let those changes occur and see where my feet took me because that new destination may just be exactly what I was looking for.

So now whenever I get asked the question, "where do you want to be in five years?" I always respond: wherever life brings me, as long as it is filled with happiness, confidence, and I can wake up with a smile on my face and strength in my heart than I know that I am in the right place.

For me, as for so many runners, there really are no finish lines. Runs end; running doesn't -Dean Karnazes

While I cannot dictate where your feet will take you I hope that you will enjoy me sharing my journey of seeing where mine go as I explore the world of marathoning, triathloning, and living a clean and healthy life as there are no finish lines a path may end but there is always a new one to open.