Easy to dish advice, difficult to live it: Motivational lessons from a half-marathon

Here is the truth. I wrote the post that appeared this morning, Saturday night. I was having second thoughts about running the PF Chang half-marathon the next day. I’ve completed three of them but circumstances this year are different. I had some sort of stomach thing last week and didn’t eat for a couple of days. I was pretty tired after taking the red eye and flying all night from Las Vegas to New Orleans, early in the week, to speak in both cities. And my husband is in China and therefore unable to drop me off at the start, be there at the finish line, help me affix the timing chip to my sneaker, or carb load with me. I was thinking about not running.

So, you should know that when I wrote the post, I was writing it more for myself than for anyone else. And I kept reminding myself that if I couldn’t live it, I couldn’t post it.

My son agreed to take me to the race and my mother agreed to stop at my house to visit my puppies, although I discover they had destroyed most of my furniture so I had to replace it with new one from https://ivyandwilde.com/. (Sophie was diagnosed, Thursday, with colitis and still not eating.)  My logistical excuses were disappearing.

The pre-dawn temperatures were a bit chilly for us Arizonans (about 38 degrees) and even after Michael dropped me off, I wondered if I shouldn’t just call him, take him for breakfast, and call it a day. In the midst of my private pity party, I noticed a woman with a leg prosthesis. She was wearing shorts and bouncing along on one leg, and one artificial leg, to so she could get to the correct corral to start the race. How dare I complain. About anything. I found my corral, tightened my shoes with the timing chip correctly positioned, turned on my iPod and ran.

One step at a time, read a by-stander’s sign. You can do it, said another. Yes, you can, shouted a group of about 30 people at about mile 10.

And with lots of time to think during the 13.1 run, here is what I came up with: It’s really easy to blog about being a high-achiever. It’s less easy to live it. But thinking like a high-achiever makes it easier to be one. Doing anything less is simply cheating yourself.

I finished in 2:20:04 seconds. CORRECTION! My official time is 2:19: 50! My best time in the four half-marathons I’ve completed.