I was talking to someone this week about my upcoming half this weekend.   Did I mention that I am running the NYC Half Marathon (13.1 miles) this weekend?    This is a goal race for me.   One that I’ve been training for.   One that I’ve thrown down the gauntlet and said I would like to run in sub 2 hours. I’ve been training, but I’m still doubtful.

I told my friend that I wasn’t sure how it would go.   I was nervous and hope that I didn’t choke under the pressure of it.  (Yes, there is pressure even for the middle of the packers).   Self imposed pressure maybe the worst.   Anyway, my friend shut me down.   She shut me down fast and with such a true and profound statement that I had couldn’t argue with.   What was so profound?

First she told me to trust in my training and pointed out that I have been running my ass off.   (I would love it if it would also run my pouch off, but that’s different).    She then went on to say the profound part that I will paraphrase….

“Don’t allow your inner voice to speak to yourself in a way that you would not allow other people to speak to you.    Imagine if one of your friends was saying the things that your inner voice was saying?   Would they remain your friend?   Would you put up with that?”

Let that sink in for a moment.

Read it again.

“Don’t allow your inner voice to speak to yourself in a way that you would not allow other people to speak to you.    Imagine if one of your friends was saying the things that your inner voice was saying?   Would they remain your friend?   Would you put up with that?”

Right!

Mind Blown!

If one of my friends said the things that I say to myself, I would be livid.   I would not listen their crap.   So why do I listen to it form my inner voice?   Why is my inner voice so negative sometimes?

Such as…

I should have pushed harder

I was so slow

I’ll never be able to do it.

Why didn’t I hit my paces

Can I do it?

As with many things in running, this also carries over to our non running lives (yes, we have those).  We have to stop being our own worst critic.   We have to get our of our own way and side step the negativity.   Most importantly, we should be our biggest cheerleader.   Now, I’m not saying we should be arrogant or obnoxious.   I mean that we should be treat ourselves the way our Best Friends treat us which is usually pretty awesome.   We have to have faith in ourselves.

This does not mean that we will always succeed in everything we do, but as I tell my preschool gymnastics kids’  “You will never know if you can do something unless you try.   And if you don’t do it this time, we can try again another time.   All you can do is try, try, try.”

I think that I need to take my own advise.

I know that I have put in the many miles to train for tomorrow

I know that I have done the speed workouts required

I will give it all I have and that will be enough

I know that I have run these paces before

I know that I can do it!!!

So all I can do is try, try, try…..