“If you always put limit on
everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and
into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not
stay there, you must go beyond them.” –Bruce Lee
As runners we’re constantly testing
our limits, whether it be during a training run when the weather isn’t
cooperating or we’re racing to accomplish a new goal. We test our mental boundaries as well, with
every negative thought being crushed by positivity. No matter how hard you work or how you
envision each mile playing out on race day, you’re rarely given a perfect race
day experience. No matter what the
outcome we all need to hold our heads high and push forward. We must remind ourselves that every race is a
learning experience and to improve we must learn from what the past has taught
us and apply it into our future plans. I
don’t mean to get philosophical, but there are days that come that find us
struggling and we need to remind ourselves that this isn’t the end, but rather
just another teaching moment.
Today was one of those days for
me. I’ve had a screwy racing season to
put it nicely. I began with my favorite
race, the Broad Street Run back in May.
A race that I had planned to break 60 minutes, but I didn’t due to an
unforeseen breathing issue. I trained
hard for months leading up to that race, I ate healthy and we all know I got the
proper amount of beauty sleep. Come race day know matter how confident I was
when I entered my corral it didn’t translate into a successful race day. What I learned from that experience is that I
was struggling with seasonal allergies.
I solved that issue with a little thing called Nettle Leaf. Stuff works wonders! I went on to have a great June and July with
two PR’s. August came and the running
success continued, with a good track meet, which had me running my fastest 400
meter time, a time I hadn’t touched since high school. After the track meet my legs were shot and
I’ve been so up and down, that I make the stock market look balanced. I have had awful training days followed by
the occasional surprise good run.
I went into today with a goal of attempting to run a 1:20
half marathon and within the first mile I knew it wasn’t going to happen, I was
already struggling. I could have easily
pulled out of the race (seriously they make it so easy at the Rock and Roll by
having you run past the start again around mile five, tempting), but I told
myself to push on and finish what I had started. I’m thrilled that I did for a number of
reasons. The first being that at mile
five a group of girls whistled at me and thanked me for being eye candy. I had a huge smile on my face until this
shirtless stocky guy came up on my left, at that moment I thought to myself
“the nerve of those girls, that was so demeaning” How could they treat that
poor guy like he was a piece of meat?
The nerve! The second reason I
was happy I kept on going was when Matt Hastings, who I was with for the first
four miles caught back up to me after he spent an entire minute urinating at
the port-a-pots back at mile four. I
didn’t think that was humanly possible, both the minute long urination and him
catching back up after. Amazing. Another reason came around mile 10 when I
witnessed some guy mentally checked out and walking. I took a moment to yell over to him to get
his head right and to get back in the race.
He instantly began to run again!
The last moment came when I crossed the finish line. Crossing any finish line is rewarding and
very telling. I didn’t finish in my goal
time of 1:20 (I wasn’t even close), but I didn’t quit. I finished what I had started, and seeing
things through is always a good thing.
You know what? There will always
be another race and knowing that is good enough for me.
Till we
run into each other again…
