You know when you try to take on something big, you develop all these ideas in your head about how perfect to plan everything is going to come out. Well sometimes they do end up perfect (usually not) and sometimes they don't. So I'm sure most people know what it is like to spend a long time working toward a goal (whether a race or something else in life), only to come up a bit short. When it is all said and done, you've reached the light at the end of the tunnel, but yet you still sit there wondering - "Could I have done better?". At first, you are happy to be done - it's quite the relief to no longer be consumed by that one goal. But as time slips away, it begins to eat at you. Day after day, week after week, month after month....what can I do different next time?
Well in this case, my unfinished business belongs to the marathon distance. I jumped into the marathon distance a number of years ago without much endurance knowledge, like most people do, despite thinking that I knew all there was to know about running. Through trial and error (lots of errors!), I've learned a ton of stuff along the way. I've read books (and continue to read more), taken steps back to assess myself, spent nearly the past year to develop the running foundation I believe is needed to ensure success, and gone through training to learn even more.
My past marathons all started with high hopes early on in the training process. But along the way, things fell off track via injury, forcing extended periods of downtime. This time, I will not fall into the traps of year's past. I'm being smart about self care, strengthening, stretching, and personal maintenance. It is all about the total package of training and not just running the distance.
Because come hell or high water, I'm running another marathon!
(as for which one, you'll just have to wait and find out in another post)
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