In that time

I’ve never been able to fully explain to people why I run. I’ve wrestled with the idea that it’s about fitness, but it’s not. I’ve told them it’s because I like having time to myself, but running for more than 30 minutes get boring. I even say it’s about the challenge, which is partly true, but there are better things I could challenge myself with.

Today I finally figured it out. Running is training for life. No, I’m not a professional runner, but running for me is an opportunity to set and realize goals, hypertune my attention to one thing for more than a few minutes and work out problems that just don’t make sense when I’m standing still, wearing a shirt and not sweating profusely. But it’s about more than that, too. It’s about keeping a promise to myself. It’s about using that time I spend on training and racing to make me a better person.

And I’m sick right now. My sinuses are clogged, I’m tired and I can feel tightness in my chest. Four days out from running 13.1 miles, this is not what I wanted, but in that time, I expect to fully heal. Because I believe that, it just may be possible to ignore what isn’t going right in my life for just over two hours. If I can condition myself to tune out the world, my professional and personal issues and every distraction that catches my fancy for more than a few seconds, I can’t imagine what I’d be capable of if I could transfer this focus to anything else in my life for 10, 20 or even 30 minutes at a time.

And it starts with goals. So, for the two-ish hours I’m running the half marathon, I will only think of things that will help. In that time:

-I will be great.
-I will be focused.
-I will be nimble and I will be quick.
-I will not stop.
-I will be my best.

When’s the last time you said those six things about your day, meeting or project? Since most of us spend far more time working than I do training, shouldn’t you be saying these things on a daily basis?

When it’s your time, what you do with it defines who you are. This Sunday is my time.

When’s yours?

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Tagged as: our time, that time