Going Downhill

When you hear someone say "Its all downhill from here." As a runner, its a good thing. Well in the literal sense it is, but not figuratively. As a runner or any athlete for that matter, there are gong to be times where you fall short of a certain goal. Maybe it was just a bad day, maybe your body and mind were not on the same page, or maybe you had an unexpected injury. None of us want to think about something like this happening, but the reality of the situation is that it happens to the best of us. Recently, one of my friends had a bad experience happen to her during a marathon. She was ready and excited for the race. This was not her first marathon, so she was no stranger to what it takes to prepare for one. The race started off well at first, but halfway into the marathon, she felt a twitch in her quad and it became painful. She had to slow her pace down and by mile 21, she was holding back tears. Despite falling short of her goal time, she finished the race! I admire her determination. It took a lot for her to fight through the pain and cross that finish line, but she did it! As expected, she was hard on herself for not finishing in the time she expected, but even I would feel the same if I were in her situation. Despite this, she lives to run another day and there will be another marathon in her future. When things like this happen, you can not let it bring you down mentally. I know its easier said than done but when we have a downhill experience, we should use it as motivation to come back stronger and redeem ourselves. I could sit here and tell you to be prepared for situations like this, but there is only so much that you can prepare for. Mentally you have to accept that you wont be at your best every single day. The best thing that you can do is give as much as you can and live to fight another day. Also, do not make excuses for yourself. Doing that can only hurt you and you wont be able to learn from what went wrong. We are all human, and we are all going to be tested mentally in different ways. I still find that I get down on myself if I fall short in my training runs or races. I have gotten better about not doing this, but I am still human. Just know this, when things go downhill, its going to be an uphill battle to come back from it. It takes perseverance and determination to overcome it. But I promise you this, when you reach the crest, its going to be all worth it!