Belief Makers

Every Friday until November 7, 2010 you will find entries from a series written by Iris about her training to run the New York marathon in 2010. It is something she never aspired to do; she has never run a distance of more than 2 kilometers in her life. In this series she describes her adventures and how she works on her beliefs to transform her challenges and successes into one great experience.

This week I am collecting rewards from my training over the last weeks. I did my first three runs outside and they went way better than I had ever imagined. I feel satisfied with my performance, with my persistence, and enthusiasm. In one week I will do my first official 5K run, and I am looking towards this new experience where lots of people are waiting together, and then run together. I am ready.

Or at least almost! One little challenge I've had since yesterday is a cramping calf muscle. Mark was so nice to point out that I probably do not clothe my legs warmly enough and he has advised me to buy some running leggings to keep my big (read: muscled) calves warm. So, I am taking good care of myself by stretching the muscle, doing some massage on the muscle and keeping it warm.

I feel that in the last four weeks I really moved from a non-runner attitude to an athlete attitude. At this point I am not thinking anymore “shall I work out today”, or “what will I do for my workout”, I just make sure there is enough time in my schedule to do my planned workout. If it is too cold outside, I run inside and that’s it. No more, “maybe yes, maybe no” attitude.

Beliefs

• I am a runner. I might be a “beginner runner”, but I am for sure a runner.
• After the tiring first minutes (yes, I still have the overcome-the-first-three-minutes challenge) I can run for a lot longer than I could have ever imagined. (5K)
• I might be a runner, but I am for sure not a jumper! During my outings this week, I experienced different water obstacles that I decided to overcome by jumping over them. My jumps were typically about half the distance required to clear the water.
• I am ready to work towards the 10K distance. Wow, I am a runner!
• My gluten free/dairy free diet helps me to breath easily and keeps allergies away.
• I can be happy and tired at the same time
• I can do it. I believe I can do it. I know I can do it. It will take time for training but I am doing it. Marathon, here I come…

Action Plan

• I have started and will continue to run outside
• I signed Mark and me up for half a marathon in Lake Placid in June
• I found the 10K race I want to sign up for in April and will sign up for it
  
• I have been running and running and running and will keep doing so
  
• At different points when I got tired, I was able to continue running by making small changes to my steps, changing speed, or changing how I placed my feet; I will keep playing with different ways to overcome feeling tired
  
• I have been persistent in my gluten free and dairy free diet; I'm going to keep going with this
  

Next week’s Marathon article will be on Saturday so I can share with you the full story of my first official 5K that I will run on Friday in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. You can expect a lot of “Yippie de Pippie”, “Yeahhh” and “WhhooHoo” celebrations, because I am going to do great!

Well, I’m off to my next training session. What great things are you planning today?

Labels: iris tuomenoksa; marathon; beliefs