Around noon I put on my running shorts & shoes, pulled my hair up into a ponytail and left the building. People handle stress in different ways. This is my way of handling it. I turned on my forerunner to let it locate the satellites as I did a few stretches and turned on my iPod. iTunes recently released a podcast, by Hal Higdon, for those who are training for the LBCM in October. I listened to the 1st episode as I did my stretches. It was still playing when I began my run and as I made my way out the driveway, I heard Hal mention a question from a V-Teamer who posts regularly on Hal’s Interactive Forum. He mentioned the guy?s vocation and to my surprise it was pharmaceutical. Oh? Could it be that some of you, in my running network, are the people who might be able to direct me to the next step on my career journey?
I continued on my run, now listening to any song that my iPod would play for me. No particular playlist for today’s run. Remember, I am not training right now, I am just maintaining my running in between marathons. The path took me onto the dirt and past various people out walking. I greeted them all with a smile and a friendly hello…as I ran and thought about the similarities to marathon training and the career path.
Before I go into training, I have to look at myself carefully – Identifying my strengths, prior running experience, and determining a goal for myself. For me, having the goal to BQ, it is a goal of significance but I am willing to put in the work. It parallels my career goals as well. I 
like a challenge where I can pull from my prior nursing experience and continue to learn the clinical research role. After the goal has been set, I choose a race to target, and then the figure out the plan to achieve the goal. Although I yet to achieve my running goal, I have a good base for the process. Now, I figure I can do the same with my career.
So I ran today and thought about my strengths, and prior experience. I thought about my journey, and figure I will do what it takes to live down the dream – be it running, family or my career. 