It Started With A Plan

I was again worried about the road conditions this weekend – I needed to do 20 miles. I also was sort of being a wimp and just didn’t feel like being cold for 3 hours or so. I headed to the treadmill Thursday for my 2nd 20 miler on it. This time I knew I could go the distance so I came up with a plan.

I looked up on McMillan Running (if you don’t currently use his calculator I highly recommend it) what my slowest pace should be for my long run based on what I sort of hope to run this spring at the marathon.

I started the treadmill out at a 9:05 pace and did this for 5 miles. The next 5 miles I dropped it down to a 8:48. I continued this dropping for all 20 miles. Never once allowing myself to slow the speed. This made me focus on running negative splits, my marathon goal. Mile 18 was 7:47, mile 19 was 7:47, mile 20 was 7:30. This run gave me great confidence. If I can run a 7:30 at Mile 20 then I most certainly can go under 3:30 this year!

The great part of the *plan* was that this 20 miler was 16 minutes faster than my last. The plan worked.

I watched Kite Runner while running. When I read the reviews it said it was about friendship. I thought it was going to be a great movie for my run. It wasn’t what I thought, but I found myself unable to turn it off. If you haven’t seen it – I highly recommend it. One of the many things that I took away from the movie was that one of the greatest sins in life is THEFT. You are saying DUH. We know it’s wrong to steal. I knew this as well…here is what I had never really thought of before…

There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft… When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.

I thought more and more about this and all the variety of ways that you can commit theft. I often have told you how I love books that teach me something, that somehow or another make me a better person. This movie made me a better person. It also reminded me that standing up for what you believe is in an important quality in life. I’m happy to say that I’m getting better at being true to myself, and in a sense standing up for what I believe and what is important to me, no matter the cost.