Where Does It Come From?

I've been asking myself this question since September when I decided to start running. I'm not running for my life because someone is chasing me (although we all know that I have that image in my head during my runs). I'm not running to lose weight. I have no real reason other than to just see if I can do it. From the very beginning this was a quest to conquer something that I've always believed was impossible for me to be successful at.

September came and I bought some shoes. I started running, and at times even 90 seconds seemed like minutes. Five minutes seemed like 30. Well now I'm above 30 ... and it doesn't seem so bad! My first goal was just to be able to run around the block. Then I felt I should register for a race, so I signed up for two 5K races. The goal for the first .... just to finish. Either walking or running, I just wanted to finish. The goal for the second race was to run the entire thing without stopping. I guess I completed those goals too easily, although I have put in a ton of hard work, so now I am setting more.

As mentioned in my previous post, my next huge goal is the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon in March of 2011. To get to that point, I have started filling my calendar up with various mini-goals and races. This Saturday will be my first trail race - going through filbert orchards and along the river. July is the first of 2 mini-goals on my way to the Half. I'm running now with the plan to do the Butte to Butte 10K in Eugene. I've read it starts with a pretty major hill, but to me that hill can only help me get better prepared for the next big race. That next big race is the Prefontaine Memorial 10K in Coos Bay (in September). I've heard this one is fun, but challenging with almost an entire mile being a gradual uphill climb. Bring it on I say! Scattered throughout the year are little 5K races I'm finding here and there, mostly in Corvallis. But I keep asking myself "Where does this idea that you CAN do this come from?

 

I think I kind of figured it out. I used to be so shy, then I worked in a theme park talking to 1,000s of people every day, and suddenly it was easier to not be as shy. Then along the way I've done other things that I wouldn't have originally thought I would or even could do. I got a tattoo. I got some piercings. I started traveling to far away places alone. (Heck I even traveled to another state to be picked up at an airport by someone I had never actually met. HI MIKE!!) And then I went ghost hunting. Four hours in the middle of the night in a huge building with no power, and endless stories of hauntings and ghost encounters. Those shows you see on tv of people staying in creepy buildings - yeah, at first I thought No Way! But then I started looking into it more, and suddenly I though, Yes Way! And so I did it - and it was awesome!

I didn't realize it until today that I keep challenging myself, but without my own knowledge. I guess once you put your body through intense pain with piercings, stay up late at night hoping to have something creepy happen, or move across the country all alone to fend for yourself .... well, running is just one more thing to conquer, and now I know I CAN do it!