Be A Hero...at least in your own mind.

This fall, I had the opportunity to coach one more season of cross country.  We had over 40 high school kids that bought in to the work hard so you can PR mentality.  This year's sweatshirt phrase, "Pain is temporary, pride is forever."

They got it!  They found the joy that is running and they enjoyed it with all of their teammates through the New England Championships.  They learned how to be heroes...at least in their own minds.

Early September this year, we had the first of the 3xMile workouts.  The goal was to hit the first mile split  from the scrimmage for all three repeats to understand pacing.  One athlete, whose dad has been a marathoner his whole life, decided that he wanted to work harder in this workout.  He was one of he slowest guys on the team but he wanted to make this workout count, for him.  He had run about 25 minutes for a 5K, not too impressive in the grand scheme, but when you run 33 minutes in your first race, ever, it is admirable.

On this September day, he ran his first mile in 6:58.  A speed that he had never felt before on land, and he kept going to the next rep because he felt good.  6:57, second mile.  Holy moly, the watch was not lying, and you could see the amazement on his face.  He was becoming a runner, a fast runner. Through his own effort and mental toughness, he was learning how to push himself to a new level.  Third mile: 6:59.  Never had he ever seen sub-7 minute miles, however, from that workout on, it became his personal goal to run sub-22 for a 5K by the end of the year.  By the time of the JV State Meet, he ran 22:02.  So close.  However, he said that in his mind, he ran 21:59.

From that workout particularly, I nominated this athlete as HERO OF THE DAY, because he broke through a mental barrier that allowed him to run faster than he ever had before.  There were two more JV female athletes, even though their PRs were 28 and 30 minutes respectively, who became tough nuggets themselves and ran 26 minutes and 29 minutes by the end of these season.  Even though they were not getting their names in the paper, they were working harder than ever and breaking into a new zone that they had never seen before.

The boys Varsity athletes, well, their response to this was well you can be a HERO OF THE DAY, however, I choose to be a HERO everyday.  Or to nominate themselves for HEROES of the DAY because they hit their times in the workouts.  Point being, you can be a hero in your own mind everyday that you live because it makes life more exciting, more enjoyable and makes every experience seem epic because you are living the dream, everyday.

Yesterday, I was a hero.  I ran faster than I had ever run before in the Mill Cities Relay.  Why?  Because I love my club (Winner's Circle) and I wanted to run so that others who cannot run as fast can still have a good time and celebrate slightly on my behalf.  There are many people in the club who are in their 50s, 60s and 70s who are way beyond their prime and at this point are looking for age group wins and age group PRs because from now on, their times will not compare to their 20s, 30s and 40s.  I  hope that I can still be running with a smile on my face at 60 with my husband and know that I am giving all I can for the race I am running. We all share something in common: we LOVE running.  Sometimes too much, but moderation comes with experience and time, once you break yourself or get injured for a long enough period that you realize maybe you were doing too much and that running cannot cure everything.  You live and learn through running and eventually you realize that you will not die if you push yourself.  Although pushing yourself needs to be left to work, races and workouts, or else life becomes too serious, too intense and not enough fun!

So please BE A HERO...at least in your own mind and sign up for the Great Bay Half and 5k on Saturday, April 7th and run for FAT Chicks to support women's health research internationally.

www.greatbayhalf.com

Order forms for jerseys and BE A HERO tech shirts will be available soon!

Also, again to learn about the Female Athlete Triad Coalition, visit:


www.femaleathletetriad.org


Continue living the life you have always wanted, I know I am.

Heidi