You expect preparing for a marathon to gift you with many life skills-- perseverance, health, bragging rights... but what you don't always realize is the way it forces you to PLAN.
Let's get one thing straight: I am not a planner.
Never have been, not proud of it. I am the Queen of Procrastination.
When I was "planning" out my calendar for 2013, I knew I wanted to include a marathon. Or should I say, New Years rolled around and I thought, "Hey! I should do a marathon sometime!"
But where to start? This is where I ingeniously came up with my 10k-1/2-Full idea. I have clear goals along the way so I don't burn out and I can track my progress toward the Ultimate Finale (Dun Dun Dunnnn).
However, each of these goals will take time to prepare for. I added up the weeks it would take for each training plan (8+10+16) and decided a 26.2 mile race in October sounded pretty reasonable, especially in terms of weather. (I even included weather in my plans! Go Me!)
Finally, I started to distinguish between immediate planning points and more general ones that could be specified closer to the race dates. These include such things as a training journal, travel and lodging, food and other expenses, etc.
Do you see where this is going? In short, I have a PLAN for the next 28 WEEKS of 2013. That's more than HALF a YEAR.
Somewhere along the long, this post-in-blog transcended a mere athletic record to an account of me growing as a person. I can't say this is a bad thing.
Moral of the story:
In failing to plan, we plan to fail. (This is a yearbook quote some kid chose when I was high school. Seems fitting.)
1. Have an Ultimate Goal and a Timeline for Completion.
2. Set Smaller Goals along the way to Stay Focused and Gauge Progress.
3. Plan out all aspects that lead to Achievement-- don't let the details slip you up!
4. Don't be afraid to take charge and hold yourself accountable. Adjustment of plans is acceptable. Failure is not.
5. You can do ANYTHING you want in life. ANYTHING. Realize what a huge concept that is and make the most of it.
Peace and Blessings, y'all. Peace and Blessings.
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