Brick Walls

I just got home from school and I felt the urge to share what I learned during my Effective Speaking class.  We watched an abbreviated version of “The Last Lecture” which is a very inspirational speech given by Professor Randy Pausch.  Professor Pausch passed away in 2008 after his battle with pancreatic cancer.  During this speech or “Lecture” Pausch talks about his childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and lessons learned: how you can achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others. 

Multiple times during this incredibly entertaining, but inspirational speech, Pausch references hitting brick walls, “Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.”  We as runner’s hit walls all the time.  We hit walls during our training, in our races, and whenever we attempt to push ourselves to go further or faster.  As most of you know I have currently hit a brick wall with my performance and have since taken some time away from running in attempt to get past this wall and continue to excel.  I will be starting back up when I begin my training for marathon number nine next week.  I’m looking forward to getting out there and pushing my limits which will bring on plenty of brick walls.

I’m playing with the idea of blogging about my marathon training to give anyone interested in getting a behind the scenes look at what I do from day one to the finish line at Pocono in May.  If I get a big enough response 

I will begin blogging about this on Monday, February 20^th.  I want to end this post with some important advice that Professor Randy Pausch passed on to anyone that was willing to listen:

Be good at something, it will make you valuable.

Work Hard.

Find the best in everybody; no matter how long you have to wait for them to show it.

Be prepared: “luck” is where preparation meets opportunity.

If you’re interested in learning more about Professor Pausch or to watch the entire lecture it is available on YouTube.