Keep your eyes on the prize

Yesterday marked four weeks until my marathon and it is always at this point in my training when I think “why did I think this was a good idea?”  Even though I already have two twenty milers behind me, the thought of one more makes me cringe.  Although I like the structure of knowing my run plan every day, after 12 weeks of the training plan I just want to go out and run however many miles I feel like.  Then I remind myself, I’m not a quitter, I committed to doing this race and come hell or high water, I’m doing it.  I think about my daughter seeing me run this race.  She’s only seen me do one race and she’s talking about it a lot, saying “mommy’s going to run a race.”   I think about the fact that I’ll have yet another t-shirt to wear to bed and one more finisher’s medal (not that I know where any of the others are).

I’ve heard a lot of people use the metaphor that something is “like a marathon” meaning I guess, a long process.  But the thing I learned by doing marathons and really learned when I did Ironman is that a marathon is a lot like life.  Rarely during a marathon have I felt great during the entire race.  I have some miles that feel great and some miles that are a struggle.  And some really great miles that come after a long uphill or other particularly tough part of a course.  When I ran the NY Marathon I was having a tough time toward the end and then I rounded a corner after entering Central Park and there were my mom and brother cheering for me, just when I needed it.  I guess probably one of the most compelling reasons I think that doing a marathon is a good idea is to get that jolting reminder that sometimes life is hard, but after the hard times you get some good times, if you are lucky when you really need it the people you love will be there for you and above all, the worthwhile things in life are usually the most difficult things.

Here’s something for your running mix to remind you that we need to just enjoy every day, no matter how many miles we need to run.