Last weekend I downloaded Robin Arzon’s best selling book “Shut Up and Run”
In 2013 after years of never thinking of myself as a runner, I ran my first half marathon. In 2016 I ran a second.
This all came about after merely setting out to run a race by the age of 35.
In hindsight, I realize that my motivation to meet this goal may not have been for the healthiest reasons. I’d signed up with some work colleagues and was determined to get through the discomfort of training and just power through it. It never occurred to me that I stood to learn something. Not only of myself but how to handle goal setting. The end goal should not only be the part I focus on exclusively….
My race experiences could not be any more different from each other. I cried like a baby at the finish line in 2013 and three years later, despite even more training I was escorted off course at mile-11 by the NYPD. Getting outside to run in 30 degree temps the day after a return flight from LA to NYC was not the wisest decision I ever made, in fact, it is largely to do with why the phrase “enjoy the journey” has so much resonance for me lately.
Despite this massive accomplishment I hadn’t laced up since then.
I had been thinking of going back to it, because I can make several positive connections in just getting up and doing it.Fast forward another three years since I’ve done anything more than a warm up jog, could I learn to love getting stronger and the re-discovery of feeling a runner’s high?
I have no intentions of running any half-marathon’s in the future, I accept that that level of intense training no longer serves me. Instead, I want to pursue running more for the benefits of being more tenacious and making overall progress in my fitness levels.
You may be wondering why I chose to write about this on my blog today and it is because there are similarities in what can be learned while running and in your own self-improvement journey or quest to build a business.
In the end, what matters most is that we keep going and persevere in spite of fluctuating emotions, challenging days and just when things don’t feel like they are moving along at all.
The only stagnation is that which is perceived. xGG