There I was...(cue the "Eye of the Tiger" song) waiting to begin the journey to.....to....what the heck am I thinking?!?! A HALF-MARATHON??? Seriously Molls, now you've just gone too far. Maybe I have...but I like it!!!
In April, my best friend and running coach, Samantha, and I are going to bind ourselves together and endure a half marathon. That's right...13.1 miles in the trenches. 13.1....very....LOOOONNNGG miles. So in order to get ready for this we have to prepare our bodies for what we need it to endure.
I am pretty dedicated to a regular routine of running/working out, but this is different. Preparing for this is more than just getting your pacing, form, and endurance right...it's more important to get your mindset right. The mind needs just as much conditioning, if not more, than the body. A lot of people ask me what I think about when I run, and the truth is...EVERYTHING! But a funny thing happens...and you athletes will relate...I have "A ZONE". It's the place I go to when I separate my mind from my body. It's the place where I challenge, taunt, and congratulate myself. It's also the place that when I am there...I can't hear ANYTHING except my thoughts and my music. Nothing can touch me...not even pain. It's a place where I am free, but in control. Everyone has a zone...it just may look different.
Where is your zone? Is it in a book? Music? Relationships? Religion? Sleep? Entertainment? Food? Wherever your zone is, it is critical to evaluate if it's a place that is good for you. If it's a place you run into to get lost...step back a second. That's not a zone, that's an escape. And though it can be a zone that may not appear damaging, if it makes you get lost from reality then you are most likely trying to run FROM something rather than TO something. Books are good, but is it a remedy for something you desire in your life? Religion is awesome (I am a proud, Christ-loving, Bible Thumper...and love it!), but if you only seek religious knowledge to fight what or whoever you think is doing wrong against you or have "an edge"....you're escaping. Entertainment's cool....but if your relating to a character or plot to the point where you feel apart of it...you've left your reality.
A zone is a place where you go to seek something bigger than yourself and bring pieces of it back to your reality to share with others. Those pieces are what others are enticed by and drawn to. A zone is a place that allows you to leave it and you feel healed, or empowered by it. So it's important that we all evaluate what or where our zones are. Because positive or negative, we give a glimpse of it to others. Running is a zone for me...it hasn't always been though. Some days it is harder to run into, some days it's not. The important thing is heading towards it with forward movement and returning with something to give others.
