Just wanted to send out a good luck to everyone running Ogden today. You're in my prayers. Run Fast. Run Within Yourself. And most importantly, Run to Have Fun! Look forward to reading all of those race reports tonight. You are all so talented and amazing athletes. FRB truly is the cream of the crop, hands down. So glad to be able to talk to and get advice from you all! See you all after work.
Some words of wisdom I've taken from Norrie Williamson's Everyone's Guide to Distance Running:
pg. 19 "If you want something to happen with all your heart, you will find ways to make it happen: If you do not really want it with all your heart, you will find an excuse to explain why it didn't happen."
pg. 25 "There can be few other sports where so many different people with varying objectives come together to meet their challenges. Running offers that."
pg. 33 "Theirs is not the pain of intense speed of marathons or shorter races, but rather the slow, concentrated pain of distance. It is something that takes as much in guts, courage, skill and ability as their speedier counterparts." No matter what speed we all run at, Williamson suggests that it takes as much guts to run a long, slow race as it does to prepare for a short sprinting event.
"The race is not always to the fleet of foot, but to he who goes the distance." I think that this is something important to take away from Williamson's work as well. If we sacrifice everything, lay all our cards on the table, and push ourselves to truly go the distance, we can still be successful and take away a positive outlook on the experience.
Long distance running, like life, is a journey, not a race. We can choose to take its course at our own speed and forge ahead or at the same time slow up and sit back and enjoy the scenery as we jog down the path. We all have something to gain from participating in the sport of running, and the comraderie amongst our participants are like no other. | 