Good Thinking.

As I've been training I've had a lot of people give advice, tips & ideas. Most people are encouraging, they know I can do it. They get excited with me and want to help. I've had a couple of people think I'm pushing it too hard & trying to do too much, too fast. I listen to everyone. There's something to learn from every piece of advice, positive or negative. I would like to say a few words today about the few who have said... "Your body can't handle training to run 26 miles by May." "This is something that takes years to build up to. There's no way you can do this." "Are you crazy? You're going to get hurt." Don't try for the full marathon, you're just building up your hopes. How are you going to feel when you just can't do it? Try for something easier first."

I know that I think differently than most people... at least... I think I do. To be honest... the thought that I couldn't do this never actually entered my mind. I know that I'm overly optimistic about things but that has always helped not hurt in my life. I have many examples in my life of how this has worked to my advantage. I can't think of a time where it hasn't. I'm always the first to jump, I take high risks, I like the thrill of the unknown possibility of how things could be. I know that the only thing standing between what I want and having it is just a little hard work. I'm realistic, that is... I do think of the bad things that could happen but the good things usually by far outweigh any negative things that could happen and I concentrate on the positive things and I guess you could say I make those things happen.

On my personal blog I wrote about this subject...
http://juliespilledthebeans.blogspot.com/2009/07/close-your-eyes-and-jump.html

Well... I don't see the difference in running. I know that I'm not athletic, never have been. I know that I have a lot of hard work ahead of me if I'm going to be able to finish the marathon. I know that I have to be careful and listen to my body. I also know that thousands of people have done this having less time to train than I have. Once I can jog for 30 minutes I can start my training schedule. The schedule is 16 weeks and then the marathon. I have about 35 weeks left. That gives me around 19 weeks to get up to running 30 minutes. I'm not close yet but I've only been working on this for just over 4 weeks. I know that a lot of people that have done this exact program were older than me or weighed more than me, had health problems of some sort or combination of these things. If they can do it than surely I can.

I don't start things to do it halfway. I've always had high goals that some might think... unattainable. I think if you set your goals high enough you might be surprised at what you can accomplish. You just need to go forward thinking about your goal, believing you can do it and continuing to work toward it. It will happen, I will run a marathon in May. I will be ready and for those of you that think there's no way I can... you wanna make a bet? : )