One of my dearest friends ran the NYC marathon for the first time today in 4:10:53. Such a huge achievement and I stood there in awe as she showed me her medal with a huge smile on her face.

This Dream has been many years in the making and today Diane finally made that dream a reality. A memorable day indeed. Of course…you cant wake up one morning and say “im going to run 26.2 miles today”. This takes preparation, training, understanding, fueling and at the end of the day focus and endurance, both physically and mentally.

Small consistent steps to get to the desired result.

Running the marathon, isn’t about sprinting, but pacing yourself. You are in it for the long haul, many challenges present themselves on the way, but you keep going.
As the end of 2010 draws near, I’ve started to think about my goals and how I am feeling based on what I wanted to accomplish this year. Looking at my own “training program” and thinking about learning experiences and how I can “train” better next year. Which of my “miles” of the past year were my personal best? Did I pace myself?

Photo Credit: Dukes of Flatbush
Tony Robbins, Said “We tend to overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a year” I completely agree. Why do we always try to sprint?
If we thought of the year or effectively our dream or goal as our own “marathon” and each step or milestone of achievement the incremental miles, creating our own “training program” or “pace” could be really powerful.

Devising my own dreams “training program” is something I have been doing for a number of years, but it was only today when I thought of Diane training and accomplishing what she did, did I realize the similarity and how powerful this analogy can be as we start to think about the year ahead. 

Congratulations Diane and to all the NYC Marathon runners who paced themselves and kept going to achieve their dream of running this distance today. 
We can all run our own great distances, those small well paced steps we are all taking each day are so important. Don’t think of it as a race, who comes first or last doesn’t matter. Its about us achieving our personal best and running after our dreams. Celebrating the 5k’s and marathons along the way, not sprinting towards the finish line, so we don’t get a chance to enjoy the view and celebrate the milestones along the way. Enjoy the steady pace of achievement, we have many miles to celebrate and marathons to be proud of over the coming years.