I Ran a Marathon. It Changed My LIfe. Now I Think You Should Run One Too.
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Running a marathon will help you dismiss an unhealthy myth. One perpetuated by the running devils while we're chilling in our comfort zones. The myth:
"I don't need anyone's help." When I committed to run a marathon the first thing I discovered was a few dozen friends ready to run with me, suffer with me, pick me up when I was down, drag me out of my comfort zone when it sounded more exciting than my current training run. These are the friends who lifted me up as I struggled through the final miles of my first marathon. |
When I decided to run a marathon, I think the encouragement the experienced marathoners offered me most often was "running a marathon is more mental than physical." Maybe they told me that to distract me from the reality that my 5'9", 230 pound physique wasn't the ideal starting point for a marathoner. Whatever the case, I had a hard time imagining anything but the physical challenge of running 26.2 miles in a single running experience.
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More than likely you're going to run a marathon because you've been inspired by someone else to do it. Maybe this article will be your inspiration. Here's the promise I'll make you, though. No matter who or what inspires you, the minute you cross that finish line, and possibly well before then, you are the one who's going to be the inspiration.
You'll have friends or family reach out to you to tell you they've started running themselves. Or maybe they've simply started taking long walks after dinner. But they are going to see you making a healthy choice, they're going to see a discipline in you they long for themselves, |
Nearly 4 years ago I went for a run. Not the kind I'd been accustomed to, a mile or so on the treadmill to warm up before doing some "real" exercise with the weights at the gym. No, this day I went for an actual run. I ran with thousands to honor a young mom from our community who'd been hit and killed by a drunk driver while out training for the Boston Marathon. (A race, I confess, I knew very little about at that time). That day I ran for Meg Menzies.
If at any point in that run you or anyone as crazy as you had suggested 4 years later I'd have run 10 half marathons along with a full one for good measure, I'd have suggested your oxygen flow |
Life is like running.
If we have friends running alongside us, there's no fight we can't fight, no race we can't finish.
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