{"id":1561,"date":"2014-09-16T00:45:41","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T00:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/?p=1561"},"modified":"2015-01-03T23:44:28","modified_gmt":"2015-01-03T23:44:28","slug":"boston-qualifier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/boston-qualifier\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Qualifier."},"content":{"rendered":"

They say that 87% of people let the fear of failure keep them from being successful.\u00a0 EIGHTY SEVEN PERCENT.\u00a0 Is that number not terrifying?\u00a0 So much untapped potential.\u00a0 So many people so close to their dreams that come up short.\u00a0 What if…failure wasn’t even on the table?\u00a0 What would we be capable of then?\u00a0 What would this WORLD be capable of?\u00a0 What dream would you chase wholeheartedly without looking back?<\/p>\n

Last fall after a year of training harder than I ever have before, I came up 3 minutes<\/a> short of a Boston qualifying time…not once but TWICE\u00a0 in one month.\u00a0 I was devastated.\u00a0 I let my fear take me over.\u00a0 How dare I make such a lofty goal for myself.\u00a0 Who do I think I am?\u00a0 I was a middle of the pack runner on my JV Cross Country team in high school. \u00a0 I could barely break 8 minutes for a 3 miler most of my life.\u00a0 I ran my first marathon at a 10:30 pace.\u00a0 Runners like me don’t qualify for Boston.\u00a0 All sounds like things people in that 87% would say right?\u00a0 I was one of them for far too long.<\/p>\n

\"bq7\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Slowly but surely, I worked on that poor attitude this year.\u00a0 I read countless books on building positive mental power and had done some serious self reflecting.\u00a0 What was I so scared of?\u00a0 My own head, that’s what.\u00a0\u00a0 Convincing myself I am worthy has been one of the hardest things I have ever done.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 Ironically, I heard this 87%\u00a0 quote on the way to my marathon this past Saturday morning as I went after my dream goal of being a Boston Qualifier one more time.\u00a0 That line hit me right in my stomach.\u00a0 So much that I replayed it several times before I got to the race.\u00a0 87% of people let the fear of failure keep them from being successful.\u00a0\u00a0 All I could think of Saturday was the number 13.\u00a0 I will be the 13% today.\u00a0 I WILL.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"verse\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite my good energy and confidence all week, on race morning, fear still snuck in.\u00a0 My strategy for race day was to play it very safe.\u00a0 The last two marathons I ran last year, I had a goal of keeping an even pace the whole way through,\u00a0 but my legs gave out way too early.\u00a0 My running style is more of a negative split which means starting off slow and then picking it up and finishing strong.\u00a0 So I decided that is the race I would run, MY race.\u00a0 <\/strong>I stuck with the 3:40 pace group for the first 12 miles, which was probably a little longer than I should have because I was scared to take off on my own.\u00a0 But I left them and made my way to the 3:35 pace group.\u00a0 Mile 23 I then left them, turned up my music and went for it.\u00a0 A mere half mile later,\u00a0 I got two ridiculous cramps in both my calves.\u00a0 Shortly after that I hit a huge wall.\u00a0 Words do not do justice to describe a marathon wall, the best I can do is tell you it feels like you have a thousand knives just sitting in every inch of your leg.\u00a0 It hurts. \u00a0 I was really hoping I was going to\u00a0 be lucky and avoid one of those for this race.\u00a0 Not so much. \u00a0 All I kept thinking was “you are the 13%, you are the 13%, YOU ARE THE 13%, just keep moving.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had all these visions of how this last mile would feel as I approached my goal, I thought I would be on cloud nine, I saw myself smiling and jumping as I crossed the finish line.\u00a0 Lets just say that was not quite the scene.\u00a0 Because I was cutting it so close and because I was in so much pain, I could not focus on anything else except moving one foot in front of the other as fast as I could. \u00a0 I had no time to slow down, no time to skip,\u00a0 every second counted at this point. \u00a0 My last mile I felt like I was sprinting, but I was probably not even holding a 9 minute mile.\u00a0 When I crossed the finish line at 3:34:54<\/strong> I\u00a0 collapsed immediately.\u00a0 I had nothing left.\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 I was so overcome with emotion, I could not even register the people around me. I could not believe I pulled it off.\u00a0 With only six seconds to spare, talk about stressful.<\/p>\n

\"bq\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was a little disappointed that it was such a close call, I really had hoped to feel stronger and finish in the late 3:20s but I FREAKING DID IT. We are all capable of amazing things.\u00a0 But we have to overcome that fear<\/strong>.\u00a0 Fear is often disguised as excuses or as self doubt, fight it off.\u00a0 What I would give to go back in time to my high school and college years, where I often never felt good enough compared to my talented teammates.\u00a0 I use to day dream about the day I would be in a race or out on the soccer field and have somebody say, “wow look at her, she is a good athlete”.\u00a0\u00a0 I wish I knew what I know now.\u00a0 It was in me all a long, I just had to tap in to it.\u00a0\u00a0 I had to stop being so scared.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"bq2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The amount of support I have received on this journey, has been overwhelming.\u00a0 It has brought me to tears several times, it has humbled me time and time again.\u00a0 I am such a lucky girl to be so blessed by so many supportive people.\u00a0 It is a scary thing to share such a big goal with others.\u00a0 It means they will know when you fail.\u00a0 But it is one of the strongest tools to keep yourself accountable.\u00a0 It kept me from walking at mile 25.\u00a0 It kept me going to my dreaded track workouts week after week.\u00a0 It got me here.\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 Stay blessed in the mess \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"bq3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They say that 87% of people let the fear of failure keep them from being successful.\u00a0 EIGHTY SEVEN PERCENT.\u00a0 Is that number not terrifying?\u00a0 So much untapped potential.\u00a0 So many people so close to their dreams that come up short.\u00a0 What if…failure wasn’t even on the table?\u00a0 What would we be capable of then?\u00a0 What would this WORLD be capable of?\u00a0 What dream would you chase wholeheartedly without looking back? Last fall after a year of training harder than I ever have before, I came up 3 minutes short of a Boston qualifying time…not once but TWICE\u00a0 in one month.\u00a0 I was devastated.\u00a0 I let my fear take me over.\u00a0 How dare I make such a lofty goal for myself.\u00a0 Who do I think I am?\u00a0 I was a middle of the pack runner on my JV Cross Country team in high school. \u00a0 I could barely break 8 minutes for a 3 miler most of my life.\u00a0 I ran my first marathon at a 10:30 pace.\u00a0 Runners like me don’t qualify for Boston.\u00a0 All sounds like things people in that 87% would say right?\u00a0 I was one of them for far too long. Slowly but surely, I worked on that poor attitude this year.\u00a0 I read countless books on building positive mental power and had done some serious self reflecting.\u00a0 What was I so scared of?\u00a0 My own head, that’s what.\u00a0\u00a0 Convincing myself I am worthy has been one of the hardest things I have ever done.\u00a0\u00a0 Ironically, I heard this 87%\u00a0 quote on the way to my marathon this past Saturday morning as I went after my dream goal of being a Boston Qualifier one more time.\u00a0 That line hit me right in my stomach.\u00a0 So much that I replayed it several times before I got to the race.\u00a0 87% of people let the fear of failure keep them from being successful.\u00a0\u00a0 All I could think of Saturday was the number 13.\u00a0 I will be the 13% today.\u00a0 I WILL. Despite my good energy and confidence all week, on race morning, fear still snuck in.\u00a0 My strategy for race day was to play it very safe.\u00a0 The last two marathons I ran last year, I had a goal of keeping an even pace the whole way through,\u00a0 but my legs gave out way too early.\u00a0 My running style is more of a negative split which means starting off slow and then picking it up and finishing strong.\u00a0 So I decided that is the race I would run, MY race.\u00a0 I stuck with the 3:40 pace group for the first 12 miles, which was probably a little longer than I should have because I was scared to take off on my own.\u00a0 But I left them and made my way to the 3:35 pace group.\u00a0 Mile 23 I then left them, turned up my music and went for it.\u00a0 A mere half mile later,\u00a0 I got two ridiculous cramps in both my calves.\u00a0 Shortly after that I hit a huge wall.\u00a0 Words do not do justice to describe a marathon wall, the best I can do is tell you it feels like you have a thousand knives just sitting in every inch of your leg.\u00a0 It hurts. \u00a0 I was really hoping I was going to\u00a0 be lucky and avoid one of those for this race.\u00a0 Not so much. \u00a0 All I kept thinking was “you are the 13%, you are the 13%, YOU ARE THE 13%, just keep moving.” I had all these visions of how this last mile would feel as I approached my goal, I thought I would be on cloud nine, I saw myself smiling and jumping as I crossed the finish line.\u00a0 Lets just say that was not quite the scene.\u00a0 Because I was cutting it so close and because I was in so much pain, I could not focus on anything else except moving one foot in front of the other as fast as I could. \u00a0 I had no time to slow down, no time to skip,\u00a0 every second counted at this point. \u00a0 My last mile I felt like I was sprinting, but I was probably not even holding a 9 minute mile.\u00a0 When I crossed the finish line at 3:34:54 I\u00a0 collapsed immediately.\u00a0 I had nothing left.\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 I was so overcome with emotion, I could not even register the people around me. I could not believe I pulled it off.\u00a0 With only six seconds to spare, talk about stressful. I was a little disappointed that it was such a close call, I really had hoped to feel stronger and finish in the late 3:20s but I FREAKING DID IT. We are all capable of amazing things.\u00a0 But we have to overcome that fear.\u00a0 Fear is often disguised as excuses or as self doubt, fight it off.\u00a0 What I would give to go back in time to my high school and college years, where I often never felt good enough compared to my talented teammates.\u00a0 I use to day dream about the day I would be in a race or out on the soccer field and have somebody say, “wow look at her, she is a good athlete”.\u00a0\u00a0 I wish I knew what I know now.\u00a0 It was in me all a long, I just had to tap in to it.\u00a0\u00a0 I had to stop being so scared.   The amount of support I have received on this journey, has been overwhelming.\u00a0 It has brought me to tears several times, it has humbled me time and time again.\u00a0 I am such a lucky girl to be so blessed by so many supportive people.\u00a0 It is a scary thing to share such a big goal with others.\u00a0 It means they will know when you fail.\u00a0 But it is one of the strongest tools to keep yourself accountable.\u00a0 It kept me from walking at mile 25.\u00a0 It kept me going to my dreaded track workouts week after week.\u00a0 It got me here.\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 Stay blessed in the mess \ud83d\ude42        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6,10,1],"tags":[23,19],"class_list":["post-1561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fitness","category-inspiration","category-running","category-uncategorized","tag-inspiration","tag-running"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1561"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1575,"href":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions\/1575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}