Mindset, Goals, and Perseverance

I hope all of you had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. I’ve been putting off posting about my adventures in running because I wasn’t sure anyone really cared.  Running isn’t my thing. That’s what I’ve always told myself at least.  But a few weeks ago I was staying with my best friend, Cate, while working out of town. Although I wasn’t super diligent in my training while working on the road I did try to get a short interval run in every few days. After I got back home she told me that she is super proud of me for a lot of things but she’s most proud of me for sticking with running. This made me think. If anyone understood how much I hated running it would be Cate.

Let’s take things back to last August when this whole running thing started … kind of. Inspired to start saying “yes” to myself, “yes” to new adventures and “yes” to what life wanted to throw my way after reading Shonda Rimes book Year of Yes I said “yes” to training for a half marathon with my then chiropractor, now boyfriend. Fine it was more of a “sure” than “yes” all while thinking in my head that I’ve lost my mind and this might literally kill me. But something about his faith in my ability to actually complete a half marathon motivated me, maybe I could prove myself wrong and actually do this.

Those first few training days were rough, brutal. There was a lot of frustration on my part and his. I couldn’t even make it an eighth of a mile without stopping to catch my breath while trying to bring my heart rate down from near 200 beats per minute. We were originally training for a half marathon in April 2017 but busy work schedules, travel, and holidays made it difficult to stick to a routine. And as someone that had never run a mile in my entire life, I needed much longer than 12, even 20, weeks. So we stopped training for a while. But after busy season I decided I had to give myself the opportunity to try, so we started training again. There have been shin splints, hellacious blisters, moments when I was sure my heart was going to pound right out of my mouth but I didn’t give up. Granted, I cut many training sessions short but even when I had absolutely no desire to lace up my shoes and go sweat my ass off in the Arkansas humidity, I did it.  I did it because I now know that I can. I know after 26 years of never thinking for a moment that I could ever run a mile, much less a 5k, I can now say I have. Maybe I didn’t finish the 5k in my goal of 30 minutes, but I finished it. I finished it in 34:57 minutes and I know next time I can achieve my goal and I’m going to continue training harder, continuing pushing myself because there’s something incredible about proving yourself wrong.

Whether you think you can or  you can’t, you’re right.

-Henry Ford

So no matter what it is you’ve always wanted, shut off the voices inside your head, tell yourself every single day that you’re worth it, tell yourself you’re going to do it, then go do it.  When it’s hard, keep going.  Listen to your body, know your boundaries.  Stop comparing yourself to anyone else.  Go do you.  Say “yes” to your dreams.  Life’s too short to let the negative thoughts hold you back.  I have faith in you!

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My next 5k will be July 29th and my first half marathon is scheduled for November 12th, 2017. Stay tuned and subscribe at the top of the page!