ROUNDING THE BEND: PREPARATION AND THE LONG RUN

We've rounded the bend, completed our long run and we're into the taper for our marathon. During the winter I posted about getting dropped by my daughter on a run.  I did step up my training ... and the kids stepped up their training as well.

They logged two runs per week and a cross training day at school during the week in addition to our Saturday long runs together. (All this was held together by having a physical therapist on hand to evaluate and treat problems before they progressed to injuries).

What I saw on our long runs inspired me. Sure, there were plenty of kids running at a fast pace, but what drew my admiration was the kids doing this at slower paces. These kids were running in the back of the pack. What was great to see is that they've taken on this challenge and they have no intention of quitting. 

As we've increased our mileage over the twenty five weeks of the program, many times the kids in the tail were finishing an hour or two or more behind the lead runners. A month ago we did our longest run of 20 miles. The runners in the tail were hurting.  But, they didn't give up. Many of them were doing a run-walk program. But, they kept moving and did not give up.

There's a wonderful lesson for life in not giving up.

Often times the difference between success and failure is nothing more than the difference between those who gave up and those who kept going.

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Having rounded the bend with completion of our longest training run, the faces of the kids (and the mentors) have had broad smiles the last two weeks as we "only" had runs of 12 and 6 miles on our program. The long winter of effort has given these kids a quiet confidence.

We're set to run this Sunday, May 1st in the Providence Marathon. I'll check back with a report on how it goes.

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What about you? What big, scary goals are you poised to take on based on your training?