Day 23: 1 mile.
Day 24: 6 miles.
Day 25: 1 mile.
Day 26: 1 mile.
I'm staring a 4 mile run in the face today after a successful weekend and a great 6 mile run Saturday. I felt great after 6 miles and could have continued on for another 2 with no trouble. This bodes well for the upcoming weeks and especially for the craziness I have planned this weekend.
A few months ago I decided to join a team of fellow Y employees who were planning on completing the United States Marine Corps Mud Run in Columbia, South Carolina. For those of you unfamiliar with the race, it's about 5 miles of obstacles and, most importantly, mud. Of the two Y teams participating from our area, I am on the "complete" team--YNOT is our name-- which means that we will not be taking ourselves too seriously as we flounder through neck-deep mud and attempt to crawl through hellish obstacles. After watching the videos, I'm not so certain I trained well enough. The "compete" team from our area starts a good hour before us so they won't have the satisfaction of passing us. I can't say I'm sorry about that.
As I write this I'm beginning to see that this Mud Run was my first step towards making some changes in my habits and my personal goals. I've done 5Ks but never anything as taxing as a muddy obstacle course or a half marathon. I wish I could pinpoint the impetus for starting down this path but it's hard to nail down. No mountain-top experience that woke me up to a world waiting to be explored. Just a gradual realization that I'm capable of so much more if I say so.
So for my few readers out there, what are you putting off? What would it take to make it happen? Why not do it? Leave a comment and let me know. I'd love to talk to you about it and join you if time and money allow.
Ryan
Ryan - I think about this concept of putting off the future often. There can be a subtle difference, though, between putting off and just not being ready yet. You could take the next step without being ready for all of its demands and fail, which is not the worst thing in the world, but something that could be avoided if you'd taken time to prepare.
ReplyDeleteLormarev
Lormarev,
ReplyDeleteGood point. A running streak, a mud run, and a half marathon have a low percentage of failure for me. I set the bar pretty low to start and I agree that setting yourself up for failure is inherently un-fun.
What I'm suggesting is that there's got to be something out there that's low-risk and high-reward. That's what I'm interested in.