All for one moment

As I have been watching the Olympics one thing that really is interesting to me is seeing these athletes really leave it all out there for just one moment that has been four years in the waiting.  How many hours of training have been dedicated to the one moment they have been waiting for?

You can understand the hurt involved when you begin to find out how much effort has gone into that one moment.  It reminded me of, well I guess probably my first 4 marathons!

You train for 4-6 months and put in mile after mile and you put so much pressure on the moment.  It can almost never live up to the pressure you put on yourself.  I heard a quote that completely changed my view of the race.  “The celebration is getting to the start line and finishing the training, the race is just a victory lap.”  After hundreds of miles of training can you put too much pressure on one moment?  What are my expectations?

That really helped me relax for the rest of my marathons since that point.  Don’t get me wrong, I want to do really well in New York and plan to run it hard and I have very high expectations.  That being said, my first goal is to have fun and enjoy running New York.  If I can’t have fun, why do it?

This has probably helped me relax more in many areas of my life.  How I can take pressure off of each and every moment and learn to enjoy the journey. 

Me and my boys had pizza and watched the Olympics one day this week, why?  Because it was a Tuesday and it was still summer.  Why not?  I just want to enjoy the journey.  I don’t need the one moment, I have the whole journey.  I will enjoy every mile of 800+ miles of training to New York and plan to celebrate with a victory lap….(hopefully a 3:10 victory lap though!) 

Happy running….