Intimidation, fear, and jealousy are probably the worst self-sabotaging emotions a person has that prevents them from reaching their full potential or even getting remotely close to it. I can still remember going to my first 5k. It was August of last year. I had prepared and trained for oh about 3 weeks. I was ready (or so I thought)! When I got to the race, I looked around and saw a swarm of 115 lb (dripping wet) girls at the starting line. All of the sudden, my archenemies Intimidation, Fear, and Jealousy showed up beside me and began taunting me, "What are YOU doing here? Do you LIKE being laughed at? You are WAY to out of shape to be doing this! All these other girls are athletes. YOU are a couch potato who every now and then likes to pretend to be an athlete". Regardless, I hushed their negativity, downed my pre-perform Gatorade, and made my way to the (back) of the starting line. The horn blew and the race was on. I started way to strong. I wanted to keep up with these trained athletes and was NOT about to let them leave me in the dust. Well.....that was my plan anyways. However, I have come to realize that running is kind of like giving birth. You can have a plan prior to going into labor, but your ideal and well thought out plan quickly changes when the pain starts. Now I have birthed two children (one with drugs, one pretty much without), so I am well aware that the pain of running is nowhere even near the pain of childbirth, but you get my point. Speaking of childbirth, I often remind myself of this when I feel like quitting during a run. I tell myself "you survived childbirth for crying out loud; you can survive one (or two or eventually ten) more miles"
I finished the race that day in about 34 minutes. Obviously I didn't win, but I didn't come in last. I guess it's all about how you look at it. ;-)
I guess what I am trying to get at is don't let intimidation, fear, and/or jealousy keep you from running. There will always be someone thinner than you, someone faster than you, someone who can run farther than you, someone who will sprint past you and leave you in the dust. But if you don't just start and then stick with it, you will never make it to the finish line. As I was running today, I discovered that I still make excuses before getting started:
- I will start running when the next song comes on.
- I will start running when the next person passes me.
- I will start running when this skinny bitch STOPS and gets off the track (that was actually my archenemies again).
- I will start running when hell freezes over.
You get my point.
Finally, I just started running. I ran approximately 3 miles. A person's brain can only handle so many counting laps before it starts to get confused and misses a few.
Happy running!
Oh and P.S.....I passed the skinny bitch and left her in the dust! ;-)
