Olympic Victories

"Treat every accomplishment as if it were an Olympic victory."

I can't remember where I heard or read that (sorry to whatever wise person had such a great statement), but I think of it often, and use it equally as often when someone else is having trouble seeing the accomplishment in each and every small step of running.

So this weekend I had my own Olympic victory. I think I even earned a Bronze Medal in the Turtle Division :)

I headed out just after 6am for a solo run. I wasn't daring enough to plan to go *long* by myself, but I figured a medium distance run of 6.5 miles would do the trick.

As I headed out the door, the battery bar in my iPod was flashing red (crap!), as I was walking to the corner Garmie beeped loudly and told me his battery was low too..........so as I started my run, it was anybody's guess who would die first: my iPod, Garmie....or me :)

I am more than happy to say we all made it home alive and in tact ~ and again, feeling like a rockstar. I ran the entire 6.5 miles ~ only stopping for a couple seconds at stop lights (I am a law abiding citizen, you know...).....and oh yeah, I did take a nice walk break at the 3 mile mark to eat a Gu and take a good water break.

It was also at that point where I had a nice, long talk with some body parts. After 3 miles, my arm was screaming at me that it didn't exactly like the tank shirt I had chosen for this run. Apparently after the winter, it's time to get the ol' arms reconditioned for a bit of exposure rubbing ;) So I had a little pep talk ~ c'mon arm chub, it's time to get with the program! I covered the raw spot with the armband from my iPod (a big initial OUCH) and trucked on.

It was slow, and wonderful. It was another olympic victory for me. A continous, 6.5 mile run. Yeeeeeeeeee Hawwwwwwwwwwww!!!!

After my post a while back about conquering the half marathon distance, Jeff asked me how I would know when I conquered it......how would it feel? And I had thought about it then when he posed the question, and thought I knew....but Saturday's run reaffirmed for me. I will just know.

This Saturday, I conquered 6.5 miles. I knew within 5 minutes of the start that I would do it. I could feel it. It's just something in my gut.

Now that doesn't mean that the next time I head out for 6.5 miles ~ or even less ~ that I just might not get my butt kicked. A one-time-conquering of the distance doesn't give you a lifetime guarantee.

It just means for that distance, on that day, at that moment ~ I win.

My hope is that all my running friends will experience their own Olympic victories this week. Dont't overlook them ~ they are right under your nose.

Happy Running!