Completed My First 15k Race

Three years ago I drove my wife to downtown Jacksonville to play my role as the supportive husband that held the camera, and her gear until she crossed the finish line an hour or so after the starting gun fired. It’s a role I was familiar with, since I was not a runner.

But hearing the enormous cannon go off, followed by “Chariots of Fire” theme music blaring over enormous speakers as a sea of runners surged forward, I got a jolt of adrenalin. I yearned to be in the race. I wanted to cross the finish line.

The only problem was… I wasn’t a runner.

I hated running and often joked about how ridiculous it was to just go run for no reason whatsoever.

I was also lying to myself. I was out of shape. I was overweight.

I didn’t realize how out of shape I was until that March 2004 morning when I waved good luck to my wife and full of enthusiasm and confidence I tried to jog back to the car… and got winded.

There I was, thinking that if I had only brought more suitable running shoes that day, that I’d just jump into the crowd and crank out over 9 miles… and I was breathing heavy after a few hundred yards.

My confidence quickly evaporated.

New Habits

Aside from telling that story every now and then, I’d largely forgotten about the Gate River Run, Jacksonville’s most popular annual race.

But then we moved to St. Augustine and had ready access to the beach. I started going there every day, and eventually started jogging.

At first it was painful to do a mile, and on a “good day” I’d get a mile and a half under my belt before my wife would continue on and finish her four, five, or six miles for the day.

I found that running on the beach gave me time to “detox” and clear my head. I would run at my own, slow pace, walk if I needed to, or push myself if I felt strong on that particular day.

So I stuck with it.

And then something weird happened… I started to miss it when I couldn’t do it.

I wanted to run.

Put Up or Shut Up Time

As I was getting to the point where I could comfortably run three miles and sometimes run four or four and a half miles, my wife told me she was going to register for the Gate River Run.

I wasn’t ready to commit, but in my heart I wanted to do it, I just didn’t know if I had it in me. The race was twice as far as I’d ever run.

I had all sorts of excuses echoing in my head about why I couldn’t do it:

• I was too tall to run that far
• I still weighed too much and I’d hurt my knees
• I only run for recreation

Screw it, I thought. Let’s go for it.

With a few keystrokes she was staring at a payment confirmation page. She smiled as she turned and said, “Congratulations… you’re signed up.”

Race Day

I stood alone in a crowd of over 11,000 runners, watching the digital clock over the start line several hundred yards ahead. My wife was way up at the front, where she belonged, because she had qualified to be in a special roped off section, away from the 90% of the field that made the top 10% look good.

But in a way I was happy to be there alone.

When you run, you’re on your own, playing head games with yourself, drowning out negative thoughts with positive ones, forcing yourself to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

This was my race, my goal, my challenge, my time to reach down inside and pull it out.

My wife runs 8 miles every week with a running club. So 15 kilometers is really no big deal.

For me, this was my marathon. Six and a half miles was the furthest I had ever run prior to race day. So I was looking at running 50% further then I’d ever done, without stopping, and with a big tall bridge leading into mile eight.

Finishing in Style

I had a great race. I finished without stopping, and I felt great. Two days of post race soreness is a small price to pay for that feeling of accomplishment.

I certainly didn’t break any land speed records, but looking back on my sad jog through the parking lot in 2004, I had truly come a long way. It took months and months of steady work. I had to fight through the frustrating weeks where my legs wouldn’t carry me as far as I had jogged the week before.

Persistence. Habits. Belief. Commitment.

This wasn’t the first major accomplishment of my life, but it ranks up there as one of my proudest.

Accomplishing Goals and Changing Your Self Image

Striving for a distant business goal is no different than pushing yourself to one day run ten times further than you can today.

It takes time, discipline, persistence, and a burning desire.

If you can do what needs to be done until it becomes a habit…

If you can keep motivated even when it seems your progress has stalled or reversed course…

If you’re willing to work hard and not get disheartened by stories of overnight success and riches that came easy for someone else…

Then you can make it happen.

And a year from now, when you look back at where you are now, you’ll smile, and laugh a bit. The challenges you face today will seem small as you look back with the wisdom of experience.

And you’ll wonder what your limits really are… or if the limits don’t really exist at all.