"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."
--Mark Twain
"Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes off our goals."
--Henry Ford
I was pondering these two quotes on my never ending 9 mile run on the treadmill this morning. Never run 9 miles on the treadmill if you can avoid it. It’s boring! Even listing to a book couldn’t keep me entertained.
These two quotes really speak to how my marathon training has worked. So many people ask me “how do you run that far?” in reference to whatever long run I just completed. Or, “I could never run that far!”
While I completely understand that sentiment, having probably said the same things myself, training for this marathon has simply been about setting a goal and breaking it down into manageable parts. Well, that and dedication to the goal and making training a priority. Any given week is challenging, but doable for my fitness level. The increase in distance from week to week is logical and within reach from the last distance. Each mile I run is a step towards my body being able to run the marathon. If I think about 26.2 miles is still a scary distance for me to think about running, but I know my training schedule has been leading me towards that distance from the beginning. When you think of training as just adding a mile or two from a previous week, it is much less scary then thinking about an 18 mile run as a separate concept by itself. It’s all about manageable steps towards a crazy goal. And then hopefully the crazy will become one more extra big step and be achievable…
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