A little over one year ago I attempted my first marathon, the Ventura Marathon. Last year I had two goals. The first was to finish the race. The second was to “hopefully” not finish last. Thankfully I achieved both of these goals… I finished in 5:51:54 and had a handful of people behind me. The course limit was 6 hours!
Tomorrow I am doing the very same race. However this time I am more prepared…way more prepared thanks to the wonderful training program offered by the Ventura Marathon. In fact when I compare my training efforts this year to last year I am truly amazed that I was able to finish.
In addition to running and running and running, this month I am meeting with all of the members of my church (we’re small so this is doable). During one of my meetings I mentioned my mantra for Sunday’s race: “I’m fit; I’m strong; I can breath”. Well this nice elderly woman said that she has a new mantra, something that she found in her reading:
“You don’t get what you want in life, you get what you prepare for.”
I love this! Not so much as a mantra but as a bit of wisdom. Of course one could always find exceptions to this, but it doesn’t defeat the valuable piece of advice in these words.
Since our meeting I’ve been thinking of all the preparation that I’ve done over the past few months. In addition to the mental work… including prayer and meditation while running I’ve put in more physical work than I ever have.
Here’s what I’ve done since May 1, 2015:
Miles run 648.10
10k races 1
5k races 8
Track workouts 6
Hill repeats 49
Reviewing all this gives me confidence that I am prepared. Tomorrow’s race will be hard. I will have moments when I feel great and I will have moments when I’ll have to dig deep. But I’m ready!
