intofitness.net

I know I’m just a novice runner, and maybe I shouldn’t be talking about medals in my very first race.  Maybe I should lean more to the side of realism, and just remove any ideas of getting a medal from my head.  But I’ve ALWAYS been like that for as far back as I can remember.  I learned it from my mom.  If there’s an activity to be done or something to know, she always said, “Why not be the best?” or “Why not do your best?”.  So I say, “If I’m going to race, why not race to win?”

Yes, I’m aware that my chances are slim.  But I don’t intend to go into this race resigned to the fact that I will lose.  I know the likelihood of getting one of the top three medals in the upcoming race is very low.  Last year’s winning results for my age division, ages 40-44 were as follows:  1st place = 18:30 (44 years old), 2nd place = 19:03 (44 years old), and 3rd place = 19:08 (43 years old).  My latest time seems light years away with a difference of 3 minutes.  No, I don’t think it’s humanly possible to shave three minutes off my time by November 9th.

But that is not going to stop me from trying.  Because in the course of trying, I make great strides and improvements.  Example: When I first ran the 5K distance, my time was in the 28-minute range.  I’ve now run this distance a total of five times, including today’s run.  My time today was 22:44, a difference of about 6 minutes.  

Belief is the heartbeat of success, the core to my success.

 
Similarly, someone today saw my current profile picture (above) on Facebook, and asked if I was a fitness model.  I know I’ll never be a model, but that doesn’t stop me from working my tail off in the gym so that I’m in the best shape I can be, the fittest I can be, and have the best abs that are possible for me to have at my age.

And yes, I’m going to save that e-mail for a very long time.