100 Miles in 17 days. HOW?
Honestly, my friends tease me when I say I am not a runner -- but I really am not. I am a competitor (lol) so that's the truth about how we even got to this 100 miles in a month in the first place.
I got a call from my friend, Draper, asking me to join a challenge to run 100 miles in May. I literally laughed out loud because while he may be insane, I was not and I wanted nothing to do with his insanity. We ended the call with me saying “yeaaaa….no thanks.” As I was in the shower that night, I thought “but what IF i did….” and that’s the very insane thought that led me to call Draper back and tell him I would join the challenge. To be very honest, the moment I committed to joining the challenge, I was all in and I was ready to do what it took to surprise myself. Here are some of the things that I had to do to succeed. I hope you can find these things to be useful for whatever goal you may have for yourself:
I was all in. See, please don’t confuse this with “I felt like doing what I had to do everyday.” This couldn’t be further from the truth. Actually on most days, I was like “why me…” and this is where I had to remember that I had committed to this challenge and I was going to give it all that I have whether I felt like it or not. There were some days where I got up to run…and took an hour to mentally prepare, but those days were just as important as the days I willingly got up and ran — both days, I took a step closer to my goal.
Accountability carried me. I had two sets of really powerful accountability groups and friends that would just SHOW up for me as I tried to accomplish this. I am in Soar (plug for our health and wellness organization, if you have not joined yet, why? It is free) and I have a group chat of a team of friends that were prepping for the Tarheel 10 miler. Both of these chats had constant motivation. People would share their runs/workouts and this helped me stay on track. Also there were friends that would check in on my progress and keep me motivated– I can’t possibly stress how helpful this was.
I planned. At the start of each week, I would check the weather, check my work schedule and plan the number of miles I would run each day. I knew that if I wanted to run a 35 mile week, and it was raining on two days — I would have to do a two-a-day. I also knew that if I wanted to run a 10 miler, I would have to wake up super early to get out before it got too hot.
I dared myself to push the envelope. Prior to this month, I knew that I could run for a little while if I wanted to (lol) but I n e v e r thought I could do 100 in 17. I just never. So during this month, given all the time we had (tnx quarantine) I challenged myself to do what I never thought I could. Here is where I pushed to run the half marathon in week one. Also, I have a friend that told me If I could run the 10 miler, that I could definitely do the half marathon (13.1). Can we take a moment for friends that BELIEVE in you and encourage your success.
I believed I could. I think beyond all the technical things that I did, the one thing that kept me pushing the most, was that at the core, I really believed I could do this. I really thought, “why not.” That faith truly carried me through.
So, I say all this to say that whether it’s a challenge to run 100 miles, eat better, have better relationships — whatever it is, it may seem impossible or daunting but if you truly have the faith,