Bruce Katlin Creates And The Running Artist

Showing posts with label life lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life lessons. Show all posts

Monday, July 27, 2009

The Long And the Short of It

I am never ceased to be amazed over the parallel of life and running. There are good days and bad days in both. A happy, successful life takes a certain amount of skills and with practice it gets easier, better and more fun. The same goes for running.

When planing goals, there is the over all goal, "I am going to run the New York City Marathon and I am going to run it in 4 hours." In order to get to the long-term goal we need to set short term and mid-term goals all of which have tasks attached to them. And the goal of any task? That's right, to complete them. Along the route to accomplishing your long-term goal you'll reassess your short term goals and tasks. When you meet the goals that you have set for yourself a sense of accomplishment, confidence and pride will begin to fill you. And those feelings will beget more success. I never thought that I'd be able to reduce my marathon time by twenty-five minutes within eight months but with hard work, I did.




Yesterday, in the park with video camera in hand I captured the runner in the above video. I noticed his easy gait and powerful stride and thought, "What a good analogy for life": easy does it but do it.

After revealing myself to "Ben" he told me that he was training for the Chicago marathon and that he was in the "cool down" stage of his day's run. (Warm-up, cool-down. The same goes for life's activities.) We shared some thoughts on running and then parted ways. With "Ben's" approval I put a little humor into the above video. Enjoy.

Monday, November 24, 2008

The 20 Mile Lesson

I ran 20 miles today. I've run 20 miles before and today's was just as challenging as all the others. People ask me what I think about when I'm running 3 - 4 hours continuously. The answer is a lot of different things but the one consistent thought is how I can apply the lessons of running to my own mental and spiritual growth and the growth and development of others. So here's what I learned (again) today:
          • My mind will always quit before my body
          • I am exactly where my feet are and no where else
          • My mind will always quit before my body (worth repeating)
          • Planning is important, implementing those plans is more important
          • It usually hurts somewhere in my body when I push myself to become stronger
          • Improvement comes slowly and gradually
          • I need to treat myself as my own best customer
          • Contentment is in the small details
          • My body can get my mind (ego) up that steep hill
          • I can't finish unless I start
          • When I move a muscle, I change a thought
          • I'm very blessed to be able to run and see where I'm running
          • I love running up hills more than running down hills
          • I can eat whatever I want when I run 70 miles per week
          • Keep saying, "I know I can, I know I can
          • Running is applicable to mental work (writing, work projects, data entry, finances) not just physical exercise
          • I have nothing to complain about when I think of the miles Tim Borland has run: 63 marathons in 63 consecutive days
There you have it. I'm sure there are a lot more lessons to learn and when I learn them I'll let you know. Until then, I'll keep running until the January 11th Disney Marathon in Orlando, Florida where myself and others are running to raise awareness and funds for the A-T Children's Foundation. I bet if I asked these kids who are afflicted with this killer disease, if they would trade their A-T bodies with the pain inflicted by running a marathon they would gladly make the exchange in a heart beat.