For the last five months I’ve been training for the Bear Lake Marathon, a race around gorgeous Bear Lake on the Utah Idaho border. The race is in three weeks and my runs have been getting progressively longer. Last week’s big run was a 20 miler, the longest practice run on my schedule.
And since I started training I have been dreading this run. I was worried about staying hydrated and energized, how my feet would hold out, how my hips and knees would do, and if this thing would take me all day long!
But I’ve also been gearing up for this run, and telling everyone I knew what I was up to and how long I’d be running. I haven’t wanted to be on this side of the run, or even going through the run. I just wanted to be done with it!
But this run, the run I haven’t wanted to do all along, turned out to be MY BEST RUN! The weather was absolutely perfect for a run. I was prepared with a camelback, my energy chews, my music….and 800mg of Rx ibuprofen for when I started to hurt.
Was it hard? Sometimes. Did I hurt? Yes, a little. But it wasn’t anywhere close to as hard or as painful as I thought it would be, nor did it take as long as I thought it would. Previously my long runs took several hours, so I figured it would take at least 4 hours to complete. But I’d never been as well prepared on those runs as I was on this one, and because I was medicated, well hydrated and energized, I could run for longer periods of time. This run lasted only 3 hours and 35 minutes!
I felt absolutely victorious when I finished. And the freedom of finally being on the other side of that run made me giddy. I was on a runner’s high for at least an hour. Because of that 20 mile run I know with absolutely no doubt that I will complete my marathon, feel great, and do it in record time–for me.
What door do you not want to walk through? That door really is not as painful or as awful as you’re thinking it will be. And I promise that’s where your freedom is–just on the other side.