The plot twist in my marathon journey
Before my career as a lawyer, I was an aspiring screenwriter. The rest of that story is for another day, except to say that, if I was scripting a story of someone running a marathon, it would probably go something like this. The protagonist of the story is someone who overcame significant obstacles to be able to try to achieve a long-held dream of running a marathon. Upon seemingly overcoming every hurdle in his way, he trained hard for race day and continued to improve day after day as the race approached. It appeared that not only would his dream of running a marathon happen, but he would run it faster than he ever imagined. But, naturally, a plot-twist occurs, and the protagonist faces a big setback – one that puts the marathon in jeopardy. Then, the ending can go several different ways . . .
I do me! (an update on marathon training)
In the end, these two weeks can be summed up in three words . . . I do me! I’ve reached a point where I’ve learned how to get more out of a marathon training program by making it my marathon training program. At times, that means taking the days I need to stay fresh. Other times it means learning how to push through it when I’m not. It means working in areas of life that define who I am while understanding that this goal of 26.2 is just one of those areas. For each one of us, the calculus is different. Only you know what it is for you. And only I can know what it is for me.
The most important lesson I’ve learned on this journey
“It is being here now that is important. There’s no past and there’s no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now.” - George Harrison
Sharing lessons from my journey over the course of Legally Fit has allowed me to reflect in ways I might not otherwise have done. I’ve reached a deeper level of soul searching. That’s not to say that it takes writing a blog to discover what’s within one’s own self, but for me, it’s been the vehicle. Still, there are times when I find that I never even asked myself the obvious. That happened recently when I was asked a question that I had never been asked before – and somewhat surprisingly not asked myself. . . “What’s the most important thing you’ve learned on this journey?” For a minute, I froze. I was so accustomed to far more specific questions such as “What’s your workout routine?” or “What’s your diet?” So, I was dumbfounded at this simple question. After a brief pause, I knew the answer, but before I share it, I’ll go deeper into where it comes from.