How often have people told you that your goal was within reach? And how often have you come so close to your goal that you could just about touch it? Or taste it?
I’ve been there.
In fact, I carry the key to the Boston Marathon around with me on a daily basis. And sometimes, I pull it out and hold it in the palm of my hand.
When you’ve tried so hard and so long to reach your goal, as I have, you have to do whatever it takes to keep from giving up. If your goal revolves around a race, as mine, you follow your training plan as best you can and hope for the best on race day. Maybe the stars will align; maybe they won’t. Maybe you’ll resort to additional measures.
For some, you simulate your race day experience: get up and start your run day at exactly clock start time, run at race pace, visualize yourself finishing at just the right time — running with just the right mindset. Basically, you eat and drink in the race…before it’s actually race day. For others, however, it may be a meditation that gets you set. Or maybe it’s researching the course, driving it, talking to people who have ran it before. Maybe that is what does it.
Maybe it’s a psychic healing. Or maybe it’s something else…
Talk about psychic, that is exactly what I’ve been thinking about. I can’t stop thinking about the upcoming race and can’t stop thinking about that ultimate goal. Thinking about crossing that line in a BQ time just makes my legs want to run faster and faster.
Love this post!
Almost taper time. “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift” Steve Prefontaine
I’m reading “The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training”. Something like that might help you achieve your goal. :-)
That key looks good in your hand, Juls.
Great post, Juls. That key seems so much more than a metaphor.
Our achievements are within each of us. It is a work in progress, that’s for sure. I just keep waiting for the stars to align.