Monday, August 31, 2015

Lessons From a Run

Today is Amy's eighth birthday. She's still asleep this morning, but I have exciting news for her!

I also have a few lessons learned.

As some know, I am running my first 5k in a couple weeks. My intent is to run it in under 30 minutes! This would be awesome for me!

Before a couple weeks ago it had been years and years since I'd been out running -- pretty sure the last time was in 2003 -- that's twelve years ago!

In my recent running efforts, the most I'd run is about 2.8k. What is that, about a mile and a half?

This morning as I went out, I decided with confidence that I'd run 3k. I had complete confidence I could do it, even if I ran slow.

As I began running, I began toying with the idea of running my first ever, uninterrupted 5k. After all, the race is coming up quick! "We'll see," I thought.

As I ran, I got more and more desirous to do it! And yes, I absolutely believe it was inspiration working in me.

It wasn't long when I decided I would. I was tempted at one point to cut it at four, but then I thought of it being Amy's birthday and thought, how cool would it be to run my first 5k on her eighth birthday! (Eighth is not a word I naturally type with correct spelling, by the way! Sheesh! Silly English!)

A little after the 2k mark, I remembered a recent video of Kris Krohn training and feeding awesome positive thoughts into Gary Norris. These are two friends who both inspire me regularly, and this morning was no different!

I began feeding my own thoughts with awesomeness like "my body was made to run," "one of my gifts from God is a body built for great running," etc. I thought of my inspiring and ever-positive friend Kevin Clayson who has impressed upon me the power of expressing gratitude! I began to express that gratitude for my body, for the chance to be running in that very moment, and more.

Running around a half mile track, half the run was into a slight breeze. My natural impulse was to feel slowed by this breeze, but my thoughts were too strong. I began welcoming the breeze and thanking it for bringing air to fill my lungs, for bringing refreshment to what otherwise would be stale, etc.

I began thinking of flow and speaking to my mind of the strength and wholeness of my heart and lungs, that my blood flows freely through my veins and brings life and vitality to my body. That air flows through my lungs, that energy, life, money, and emotion flow through me abundantly.

I regularly thought of Amy and her birthday and how cool it was that I was reaching this goal on her eighth birthday!

And I made it! I did it! I ran my first ever full, uninterrupted 5 kilometers this morning!

After breathing hard and walking a few steps, I felt SO excited! Was it in my mind or was it out loud that I said: "I did it Amy! I did it!"

The idea came of posting this on Facebook with pride for my achievement (which I will with a link to this blog post)! I felt so good! Then the thought creeped in: "posting it on Facebook? It's kind of pathetic really, this is your first 5k? You probably were really slow anyway. ...sure you want to do that?" And my excitement and joy faded a bit.

But I caught it. Can we see here how comparison murders joy? I remembered this truth and rejoiced again in my pride of accomplishment! It is life and joy for me!

I'm so excited to tell Amy when she awakes! I don't expect a lot of reaction from her, but I'm excited to tell her nonetheless!

When I made it in the house, after walking around and breathing hard outside a bit, I looked at the app on my phone that tracked everything.

I saw the total time and felt a bit confused.

Previous runs often averaged around 6 minutes per kilometer. I figured with a run as long as this, I probably averaged around 7 minutes. My time was 29:20!

Say wha?

k1: 6:24 -- kind of what I'd expect
k2: 6:04 -- oh wow, I went a littler faster on that one, cool!
k3: 5:56 -- ...huh?
k4: 5:34 -- What the? How on earth?
k5: 5:21 -- A full minute faster than my first one??

This baffled me!

How could I have gone faster on these later ones? Isn't that completely backwards?!

My left brain didn't get it, and then I realized -- it was my self talk.

It wasn't just my self talk though, it was my belief in my self talk. I was choosing in, believing all that I told myself.

You see, no one is born a winner or a loser, we're born choosers.

What we believe affects what we create. Why? Because you will act as though what you believe is true regardless of its validity! We are living, breathing, self-fulfilling prophecies.

We choose what we tell ourselves and we choose what we believe.

I choose to believe. I choose to live!

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