The Running Lessons

I didn't realize it in the years when I was training as a competitive junior high or high school [image error]runner but much of what I learned in training has application in my every day life.

This morning my run was a challenge. I had a long day yesterday and my body was physically and emotionally exhausted. When I was barely a quarter mile into my almost three-mile run, I realized it was going to be a long three miles because of the way I felt.

I remembered back to my coach freshman year of high school, Mark Guthrie, who once told us that if we were going to be good distance runners, we had to run through the discomfort and get used to it. I will admit that I have gotten lazy recently and sometimes when I'm tired I'll walk. But I am not feeling comfrortable with my physical body because of that laziness so this morning I vowed I would not stop. 

I tried to distract myself and think about other things and I managed to do it but then I came to the last block of my run and I had to keep myself going. Today was garbage day and I could see my garbage can in front of my house. That was my goal: to get to the garbage can so I could stop.