wanting the run

This fall I rode 106 miles on my bike, in 92+ degree heat, with negative splits.

Never EVER in my life have I so badly wanted to train for a marathon. I want to run using the philosophy I used on that bike ride.

I went in on that Saturday with the idea that a positive attitude goes a long way....

and

A mantra that has nothing to do with success and everything to do with humor is more powerful than a canned impersonal mantra that has no emotional connection.  "Tom's Tire... Beer."  I know people who run with the mantra "Try Not to Suck", and other's who focus on "Damn you Miriam!" And I want to run again, with a Mantra of the Day, as I did in 2010.

I want to bring myself to the edge of death, and remember how on that bike ride, I pushed through and just kept going... even when it hurt, I wanted to stop, etc and so forth.

I am craving the aching muscles, the pride, the exhaustion, the doubt, the success, and the self confidence that go with marathon training... just as I experienced doubt, fear, success and galactically badass bike ride in October.

I went in undertrained exactly trained enough to finish strong on that fateful Saturday. If that event had been the 102 miles it was supposed to be, instead of the 106 it was, I might have even finished stronger... but there's no second guessing, because it's what it was in the moment.

I want to RUN.