Those of you that know me know that I love to run. I've been running only a few years but quickly got into the long distance stuff, for a real challenge. Once my first marathon was done I quickly entered the world of mountain running and ultra running and loved it. I'm more of a climber than a downhiller so even entered an uphill marathon in Switzerland and loved every minute of it! I often felt I had missed out on the middle bit though, the fast marathon bit and so last year decided that this Spring I would go for it. I would enter one of the big city, fast, flat marathon courses and put all my effort into achieveing the best marathon I could possibly run. No pressure like.
So along with a couple of friends we entered Rotterdam Marathon. It seemed ideal. Crowds not too big but being Holland it would be flat. I decided I couldn't do things as I had done before or I would get the exact same results as before, my marathon best being 3 hours 13 minutes. I got physiological tests done to determine my fitness levels/ weaknesses/ capabilities etc. and after blogging about it got the help of someone who changed my training slightly and pushed the limits just enough for me. I trained differently, I lifted weights, I swam, I cycled, I went a bit over the top and crazy but I desperately wanted to do well above all else.
So last Sunday was the day. I won't go through the race here because I've been blogging about it on TGU and here also. But I achieved something that I even thought was way out of my reach and beyond the impossible; I broke the 3 hour mark for a marathon. I had aimed lower and reached much, much higher. Just like Midge said in her post about being grateful, I'm thankful that things worked out in my favour on the day, that I didn't get ill beforehand or on the day itself; that all the stars collided at that one moment to make everything work out fine and for me to be able to write here that I achived something really important to me. I know to some it's just sport but sometimes these kind of human endeavours become really important personal goals, and we see these achievements or failures as a reflection of us personally. And it's also nice to come over here and be happy about something... :-) So what's your goals? Any future plans you're striving for? Anything in your mind you always wanted to achieve but thought impossible? If so, PUSH HARD, you might just get there.
I'm so glad Ash that you posted this here, I've been reading your blog, and you know I am so inspired by your hard work ethic and your determination has been such a wonderful example to me in lots of areas of my life!
ReplyDeleteThanks
Fair play Ash. I'm so jealous the way you can do all these big achievements. I haven't really achieved anything in ages. I don't even know what my goals are other than survival. Makes me think, I'd like to achieve something one of these days. Then again it's all relative, I can picture Midge coming back to me pointing out x, y, and z that I've done but it's been a while since I've done aything, but life goes on and I know I'll achieve something at some point in the future.
ReplyDeleteBtw, is your computer on yesterday's time that you ended up posting behind posts that were older than yours.
ReplyDeleteMilan the blog seems to post when the draft was created. This has happened to me before. So if you spend weeks preparing a post it'll pop up way back then......time travel eh?
ReplyDeleteIt does that alright - you can click on the bit below the writing window and change the timecode if you want to the time you're posting and it'll be brand new ;)
ReplyDeleteMy own slaps on the back, Ash. A huge, huge achievement as I'm saying in the new letter I have half finished!