A marathon. Wanting to do it is one thing. Preparing to do it, that’s a whole ‘nother animal. The schedule is pretty straight forward. Easy run, harder run, easy run, in the middle of the week. Then a really hard run on the weekend.
Last week’s 16 miler was…an experience. I got through my first 7 miles at a great pace. I didn’t start to run/walk until mile 8. On the return trip I plodded through 4 miles, then my phone died, and I did more a matrix-style run/walk for the last bit. I mean I was moving slowly while the world was flying by.
The weekend before it was 15 miles. Next weekend it’s 12 miles. It’s funny to think that I’m really looking forward to running only 12 miles. When I did the half marathon in January, I crossed the finish line, and about 15 minutes later I got stabbed with an icepick. At least that’s how I felt. I was on my back while Janie was finding a medic. They wanted me to walk to the first aid tent. Janie convinced them that having me walk anywhere was probably not best. Now I’m looking at the calendar and thinking “Oh, just 12 miles! What a relief. I can go dancing that night!”
There are days when I miss a run. I missed last Thursday. No one is there to chastise me. I could take a week off, if I wanted to.
The thing about all of it though, is that whether I do the run, or say I do the run, it doesn’t matter because the day is coming. On April 26th I am going to start the race, and unless I stick to this regimen, I’m might not finish it. I’m hedging my bets by training for it.
When I went to Tampa, I tried to find the prettiest route to take for the 15 mile run. I was stressing over the condition of the roads. I wanted to know what neighborhood was decent. Finally I decided I was just going to do a 5 mile route 3 times; It was along the ocean, that’s decent enough.
I woke up at 7am and it was pouring outside. I ended up in the gym, logging miles on the treadmill. When April 26th comes, I can’t say “I didn’t follow the schedule because it was raining that day.” I can’t say “I didn’t do 15 miles because I couldn’t find an ocean view.” I will either be ready, or I won’t.
I can’t live by “I didn’t do it because _blank_”. There’s a million reasons to not do something. I don’t go over reasons “why not.” It’s much more efficient to go over the reason why. I’ll take a million-to-one odds on that.
When push comes to shove, we do the things in order- from most important to least important. Things happen because we make them happen. Doing what I set out to do – that’s most important to me.
Find your most important; Leave behind anything that doesn’t push you towards your most important. The distractions will disappear, and you will be left with a clear goal. You’ll sleep better. You’ll wake up ready to step into the world that you shape.
My world begins tomorrow at 5am with a 4 mile jog.