Pushing yourself

Fall season brings many things, including marathon season! Today was the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC; the Chicago Marathon was a few weeks ago, and the NYC Marathon is next week. I have friends running in all of them and have actually run all those three marathons myself.

Running a marathon is a pretty big test of strength. It requires a tremendous amount of dedication (to do it right) and often times requires digging in deep to your inner core and pushing yourself beyond limits that you are not use to. Today I ran with a few friends and one of them commented that when you train for a marathon, you really need to push yourself when you don't want to. You go out in cold days, rainy days, days you don't feel good, in the dark, in the humidity, and all sort of conditions. When you are finished, you feel good and realize that you just did something you didn't want to.

So....the next time that person goes to do something they don't want to, they can always look back to the marathon or marathon training and say: "I did it then, I can do it now." Excuses get thrown out the door and toughness steps in.

Do you need a goal? Do you want to test yourself? Certainly a marathon is a great goal, but what about a half marathon? Or a 10k? What about doing something you never thought you could? How would that make you feel? What kind of confidence would you gain? There are many races in the fall and spring, so find one for next year and start training now. Most likely, you will be happy you did as you will push yourself to new limits and will be happy you did.