Today my countdown focus is going to be on the mental aspect of being tough enough to not quitting. I was looking back at my old posts on when I first started thinking about a marathon. I quit looking when I found a post from February 6th. At that time I was looking at a marathon in June. My motivation was the following mantra that I had crafted for myself, “If Elisabeth Hasselback can run a marathon, I can run a marathon.”.
During this month I was all over the place. I started an idea/plan only to fall off the bandwagon. I bet I started and failed about 3-4 times in January-March. I was a mess. I was dealing with some injuries and also just a weak frame of mind. The key here is that despite stopping from time to time I never quit. I never lost sight in my goal of a marathon.
I had to reexamine my approach to my training and I broke things up into smaller attainable goals. I had a good week of training in February only to be sideline by a foot injury playing basketball. Frustrations were quite high. I continued to train, but after about four weeks I was sidelined with my foot injury again. I was prepping for a half marathon and I remember doing the practice course run and feeling really good about things until pain happened. This happened around the first week of May. At this point I had to stop once again, reconfigure my goals, my races, and plan.
Finally, in June I flipped the switch. I was done with excuses. Despite the injuries I was not mentally prepared for what I needed to do. Deep down I knew that. Deep down I knew I wanted this marathon. Finally, enough was enough. I started a new series which has become my slogan during this training, GETTING IT DONE! I created my first post in June.
On June 7th I started what would become one of the greatest journeys outside of being a father and husband in my life. I began SERIOUSLY training for my marathon. I am less than a week away. I have had so many ups and downs from that starting point, but the key is that I never quit. I fought through the physical and mental battles. It would have been so easy for me to quit. It would have been so easy for me to package all the excuses with my foot injuries, the size of my body, the rain, the heat and humidity, having three kids, etc. It would have been easy to focus on a smaller goal.
But when did “EASY” goals and tasks ever make you feel good about your accomplishments? This journey has been everything but easy, but I would not trade it for a million bucks.
I can only imagine how great it is going to feel to cross that finish line Sunday.
On Sunday, my mantra GETTING IT DONE! will be changed to GOT IT DONE! and these thoughts here are part of my mental preparation counting down to my goal. Tomorrow I will have another idea to discuss. Stay tuned
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