Life is so much like a marathon! Your first step is your longest stride.
You decide on a program to follow (a life plan) and you try your best to follow it, but inevitably something comes up and you skip a work out or a work out goes poorly. So you do your best to get back on track, and then everything is clicking, going as planned and one morning you wake up with a minor injury, you nurture it and hopefully in a few days with adjustments you are back on track with your training. You are committed in a way you never thought possible. But so many days you don’t want to run, don’t want to eat right, and just don’t want to be present in your training. But you do it anyway, and then as you progress into the training you start to feel strong, you have the days when you think you’ll never make it and the days that YOU KNOW no one can stop you.
Unfortunately in marathon training as in life you sometimes sustain an injury that cannot be nursed back to health in time for your targeted marathon, you try running through the injury, you try everything. Nothing works and you have to drop out of that particular marathon. It crushes you and you believe nothing could be worse. You feel like giving it all up and think you can’t go on.
But you later discover that it does not mean your marathon days are OVER. You’ll work it out, get the help you need, you’ll rehab the injury and you’ll target another date for your next marathon. And this time you’ll look out for the warning signs, you’ll know better what to do to avoid the injuries. And you’ll train harder, and better. And you’ll still have your good days and bad but you’ll keep putting one foot in front of the other and soon you’ll be standing at the start line of that marathon. You’ll remember the lessons learned in the past. You’ll not make the same mistakes again, and if others try to stand in your way you’ll understand WHERE they come from but you will not let that detour you. You are running a marathon, called "YOUR LIFE”. You must be present in it every moment, for life is not a given but a given gift.
And when you step up to the start line you will be ready, you will have trained for this and you’ll know, start slow and steady, don’t rush, enjoy each moment, it will not last forever. At times you’ll feel like quitting but you’ll repeat one of your favorite mantras; mine Is “Pain is temporary, Pride is FOREVER!”
You WILL cross the finish line of this marathon and the ones to come. Many things will go into your training for the future marathons of life. You’ll never forget that you can make it to the finish line. By having the courage to take the first step in the direction you want to go is forever life changing and is rewarding each time you accomplish what you set out to do. .
As all of us recreational athletes know, it’s all about your PR, your “Personal best”, we all strive to beat our PR with each race, as in life we need to strive to beat our PR every day.
“If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late could you say goodbye to yesterday? Would you live each moment like your last, leave old pictures in the past? Donate every dime you had, if today was your last day? So live like you're living twice, don’t take a free ride in your life. So do what it takes, you can’t rewind a moment in this life“. From the band Nickleback. Check out the entire lyrics at http://www.metrolyrics.com/if-today-was-your-last-day-lyrics-nickelback.html Great song!! And every word is great to live by.
What next Milestone you are targeting?
Run on my friends. Your health, physically and mentally is the most important thing you have.
