Dedication

I went for my first run last night dedicated to finish the run.  I didn’t set a pace to meet, a time to beat, or ever a distance to run, I just wanted to go out for a run and stop when I felt ready to stop.  It felt great for the first twenty minutes or so but then the years of being out of shape really started to weigh me down and I found myself having doubts.  Is this really something I want to do?  You’ve tried to do this before and it never worked out, what makes you think it will work this time?  You’ve gone far enough for the first day just go ahead and head home.  Despite all these feelings for some reason I continued on.  It wasn’t some supernatural desire or anything other than that this time I was able to say “no this is really important to me I need to keep going.”  I finished out the run with an average of a nine-minute pace and completing about 5 miles.  It felt good to go that far despite how slow my pace was.  It did get me wondering though what was different with this run since the other times that I tried to pick up running again I had quit?  Was it that I had just made the commitment to run that day and quitting wasn’t an option, but later in the weeks or months to come it might be, or was it that I had really started down the road of success?  After thinking about this for a while I came up with the idea that I need a running partner, someone who doesn’t have to run with me but to keep me accountable for my goals and help me through barriers.  Every time I have tried to pick up running again I have tried by myself.  Even when I was in the best shape of my life I still had teammates and friend who kept me responsible for what I had set out to do.  It seems to me one of the best ways for success is to share your goal with someone so that the next time you are thinking of quitting you will have that reminder that you are not only letting yourself down but your partner as well.