I am not sure if anyone of you that read this blog run. I think that some of you do and might identify with me at some primal level. But most - if not runners - won't understand what transformation happens as one begins to accumulate more and more miles.
I will try to explain it a little bit. I was a fat man. To be honest 265 pounds does not look good on my nubby little frame. It is something you don't want to cram into a Sunday suit - much less begin to buy those elastic pants. I also have genetic demons that haunt me from both sides of the family. Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and probably mild amounts of insanity. Mix that with the realization that goes something like this: I am a fat man. If fat causes premature death - and it does - do I want to die early and spare the earth or begin to run/exercise/swim/walk/eat right/watch what I eat/actually look at food labels/change my habits/quit eating so much food based on butter?
So it began - I began to run small distances. Mostly to prove to myself that I would not die if I ran those distances. I ran in the following races:
Big Sur Marathon 2010: Finished 5:03:46
Riverton 1/2 Marathon 2010: Finished 2:11:30.8
Top of Utah Marathon 2010: Finished 4:58:51
Ogden Marathon 2011: 5:16:48
Salt Lake Marathon 2011: 5:14:37
Ragnar Relay 2011: Baby Got Swack 30 Hours (18 Miles for me)
Freedom 1/2 Marathon 2011: 2:09:54
So what do you see above? What I see is a lot of room for me to improve. My wife - Mollee - gave me some wisdom. She summarized my training and my drive. To get ready for the Big Sur Marathon I believed that I had to go longer and faster and train harder than I had ever done before because I believed in my mind that it was going to kill me. I believed that I had to somehow cheat death or some such nonsense and that I had to go that distance. Guess what. I went that distance. I cracked the 5 hour mark for a marathon. And since then it has become routine for me to come in over the 5 hours mark. I was reading a book "Once A Runner" which I might add is an easy read which also entertains. But in that book they talk about the numbers. How you are known by the numerals after your name. Well I am know in my mind as someone that can run in a marathon - go for over five hours of strenuous exercises and not die.
So now what do you do with yourself? You have found that you can run for a prolonged period of time. But are you still pushing yourself? Are you still grasping at the last ticking numbers and pushing yourself to beat your last effort? If you think about it - that is what running is. It is you against you. Golf is you against a ball armed with a stick. But Running is you versus yourself. I find that I am my harshest critic when it comes to me.
This last weekend - I decided to run the Freedom Half Marathon - it runs from Emigration Canyon - to the Utah State Capital Building. Very scenic. But in the middle of the race I figured something out. I could be faster if I wanted to be. I could push myself to really go the distance faster. To push myself and get to the end quicker. I don't know if you know this but if you don't run the whole race or you walk and then run and then walk and then run your grandchildren will overtake you and smoke you. SO - I figured out that I can be faster than I have been. I know now that inside I have the ability to push myself harder and farther. Mollee asked me what my Beats Per Minute on my GPS watch was. I did not know - so she told me that I needed to push myself to find the limits to where I could go. 150 BPM. Not bad - 165 BPM equate to a 7 minute mile for me. That is pretty fast.
So what is the point of my rambling. I will put it into a succinct phrase. "It is you against yourself." I was reading Michael Bloomberg and his outlook on the future. He said "You can't change the past - you can learn from it but you can only look forward to the future and work to change your outcome."
Therein lies the lesson. I cannot go back and break off the numbers from my last distance run. I cannot shave minutes off of what has already been done. BUT. I can work harder right now - push myself harder - faster - and with more momentum so that the numbers associated with my name change in the future. I know I can run 8 minute miles - but can I do that for 26.2 or 13.1? How fast can I go? The numbers don't lie and neither does the effort to get you to the next race and obliterate your own records.
Don't walk, run. Don't run. Sprint. Push it up to the next level and what reward is there? You, but an improved you. With no regrets because you left it all out there on the course. You pushed it and you worked on it and your result is something to be proud of.
Reach for the Hostess Pies? Sorry I am going a little bit higher than that.
