Boston to San Diego – take your car and, depending on your routing, it measures out to a few miles more than 3,000. And so it is fun to think that I ran enough steps, so far, this year to get me, under my own power, from one side of the US to the other. Yes, I am happy to report that I have made it to my goal of 3,000 miles for 2013 – and I have four more weeks to go!

The THPL journey metaphor is quite strong for me on this one. This year was indeed a journey, with challenge after challenge to overcome – it started with a many goals – get to 2,000 miles, write a blog every day, do a few other things (BTW - my PB was 1,600 miles before this year and blog posts zero). But before long it was clear that 2,000 needed a stretch goal and I concocted the idea of running 3,000 miles. And so on, September 25^th , with 2,150 miles completed, I committed to the 3,000 and calculated that I would need to run 8.75 miles a day till the end of the 2013 to get there. And with one foot in front of the other I started on the next phase of the journey.

And here I am, a month before the year is over and I have accomplished the goal, four weeks sooner than expected. The facts are that over the past ten weeks I averaged 91 miles a week, about 13 miles a day and I did not miss a day of running. There are many insights and experiences that are a bi-product of this experience. And I know deep in my heart that there is no “better than anyone” as a result of this experience. It was just me against me. I set out to find out what it would be like to take on this stretch goal and I did indeed find a few things. My soul tested and my body challenged, this is what I can tell you:

1. Yes, yes and yes – we can do more than we think we can.
2. A goal makes all the difference. Daily, and measurable, I documented my progress every day – I was accountable and I felt it.
3. The mental part is harder than the physical. There were days when 10 miles felt like a 100 and I then I had to do it again the next day and the next. Seriously, that was tough. The good news is that after about six weeks the 10 miles did feel good and “normal”.
4. Getting ahead of the necessary mileage early on made me feel better – it helped reduce the “deadline / goal” stress.
5. Miles 7-10 are much easier than 1-7, you just have to get there. And when you get to 10 it is very easy to add just one more mile.
6. We have a lot of power inside us, we need not fear it, we need to tap it and use it –it is worth finding out what the power does indeed feel like and how you can use it – (the running is just a “simple” way of see what is possible)

Where to go from here. Not sure I will make it back from San Diego to Boston but I will keep running. And I will keep searching for the that pure version of THPL where you get the “runners high” and you touch your soul and you feel something rather unique…….yes life is way more than running……..indeed it is and this is a good way to find that out.

Loving life and running and running and running.

Ciao

joe