Never give up on your dreams - my journey to complete an Ultra Marathon (30 miles/50Kilometres) in 52 Weeks
I’ve started my training to complete and Ultra Marathon 30 miles/50 Kilomertres run in 52 weeks…..
Long distance running became a passion of mine that developed in my late 30’s, early 40’s. It started with an article in a magazine about a mom of three kids that decided she wanted to run the NY City Marathon. She started training and she completed it. A few years later when I was on one of my health kicks that involved some running on a treadmill, I was completing one of the runs and I decided I wanted to run a marathon. My husband thought I was completely crazy (and maybe I was), it took a year to train, I joined a running group after I was able to run a half marathon distance and on October 10th 2004, I ran and completed my first marathon. I ran 3 marathons after that, the Chicago marathon (2005) a second time, Lake Geneva WI (2005) and the Seattle Marathon (2007). It was after my 2nd marathon (2005) that I really wanted to run an Ultra - that was 15 years ago and although I have attempted 3 times (latest attempt was in 2019), injury has prevented me from getting past the 13.1 mile mark. I still can’t get the race out of my mind, so I have decided to take a different approach this time – hire a personal trainer to get my body stronger so it can handle the intensity of running a long distance, a massage therapist and acupuncturist to get rid of old injuries, and . writing down my goal every day and visualizing finishing on every run. I started with my trainer 6 weeks ago and today I started my first training run.
The reason I keep trying to run this distance (apart from not being able to get this goal out of my head), is I am a firm believer that you just need to keep moving in the direction you want to go in to reach your goals. You may get knocked down, have set backs and have times that you want to QUIT. If you get knocked down, you force yourself to get up and be more determined, setbacks are a learning opportunity (how could I have done better) and QUIT is a 4 letter word. Having a goal to run an Ultra, helps me achieve my business goals– when I run it allows me to think through problems and find solutions, I feel every step I take gets me closer to my goals, I push myself harder, I step out of my comfort zone, never give up and enlist help from others. I love being an entrepreneur, I know it is where I am supposed to be and when I run, I know the distance is what I want to run. I feel vulnerable putting my long-distance running goal out there as I know I have failed before, but I just can’t get the goal out of my head. There is no “time” goal for the 30 miles, just a “finish” goal. If there is anyone who lives in the Denver area and wants to train on a Saturday or wants to “virtually” train with me, I am always looking for a training partner.
Let the journey begin…..