I can't believe this is my first blog post in 2013! Fundraising, training and work have been eating up a lot of my time, and both my weekday and weekend runs have been steadily increasing in mileage. Though I'm occasionally mentally exhausted by it all, especially this week when I have to be at work two hours earlier than normal and still somehow get in 7-8 miles in the morning, physically, I'm feeling great. Saturday I completed 17.8 miles with my team, and despite some tightness in my hamstrings, it felt amazing. I actually felt as though I had a little bit left in the tank at the end of my run, and I could begin to imagine that it might be possible for me to keep running for another 8.4 miles. I felt much like I did after my 8-mile PR this summer: invincible.
These days, more of my friends and acquaintances are curious about my training. Over and over again, I'm asked about the distance I've covered. These days, when I'm running over a half-marathon every weekend, I always get the same reaction from people: "That's crazy. I could never do that." I would have said the same thing a year ago.
Now, every time I hear that from someone, I want to say, "Guess what--if you wanted to, you could."
If I have learned one thing from this experience so far, it's that we will never know what we are capable of unless we try. Could I have woken up on Saturday morning and spontaneously cranked out 17 miles if I had not been training? Absolutely not. But I woke up Saturday knowing that I was going to run 17 and knowing that I could make it because last week, I ran 16. And I knew I could run 16 because the week before that, I ran 15. You get the picture.
In February of 2012, I ran 0 miles. Same with March of 2012. In April, after I started thinking about doing a half marathon in September, I ran 15 miles. My longest run was 4 miles (which at the time felt really, REALLY long) and I was averaging 12-minute miles. These days, I run over 100 miles a month and average 9:30's. There are many people on my team in their mid 50's. We have one guy who is over 70. One girl is at the back of the pack every single week, but she smiles and high-fives everyone as they pass her, and she finishes each run feeling like a rock star.
These days, more of my friends and acquaintances are curious about my training. Over and over again, I'm asked about the distance I've covered. These days, when I'm running over a half-marathon every weekend, I always get the same reaction from people: "That's crazy. I could never do that." I would have said the same thing a year ago.
Now, every time I hear that from someone, I want to say, "Guess what--if you wanted to, you could."
If I have learned one thing from this experience so far, it's that we will never know what we are capable of unless we try. Could I have woken up on Saturday morning and spontaneously cranked out 17 miles if I had not been training? Absolutely not. But I woke up Saturday knowing that I was going to run 17 and knowing that I could make it because last week, I ran 16. And I knew I could run 16 because the week before that, I ran 15. You get the picture.
In February of 2012, I ran 0 miles. Same with March of 2012. In April, after I started thinking about doing a half marathon in September, I ran 15 miles. My longest run was 4 miles (which at the time felt really, REALLY long) and I was averaging 12-minute miles. These days, I run over 100 miles a month and average 9:30's. There are many people on my team in their mid 50's. We have one guy who is over 70. One girl is at the back of the pack every single week, but she smiles and high-fives everyone as they pass her, and she finishes each run feeling like a rock star.
Starting from scratch in any aspect of life is hard. But if we don't pick up our shoes and run a mile, we may never believe we are capable of running 2 miles. And if we never try to run 2 miles, we may never get to 3, or 5. Maybe our goals sound crazy to other people. Maybe they even sound crazy in our own heads sometimes. But if we make a commitment, and find the right people to support us, I honestly believe that we can do almost anything. I was not born to be a runner, and I certainly wasn't born to train in the winter. I hate the cold, I have terrible circulation, and it takes me hours to warm up once I'm back in the heat. But every Saturday, I get up and run through the snow, wind, and ice, because I know my teammates will be there to support me (my go-to running buddies are pictured above). Because I know that this is what I need to do to meet my goal. Because I know that my efforts are directly supporting my students and those in the future Bottom Line classes to come.
Find a goal that inspires you, and get out there and take the first step. You will never know what you are capable of until you try.
