What Do You Choose - Distance, Speed, Or Duration?
One of my best friends has recently picked up running. He’s almost 50 and in incredible shape. Better physical shape than I am if you were to look at us side-by-side.
It’s 20 years of work. 20 years, that I haven’t put in.
He’s fast. Strong. And went out and did 33 miles on his own.?
Because you don’t need a race, you don’t need to wait for some special time. You can do this on your own time at any point that you choose. Nothing is stopping you from going and running a marathon in your neighborhood.
And as he goes through this process, he’s wondering what is next. What is the next hill to climb?
Because that is the right attitude. You want another challenge. You want to keep pushing. Keep growing.
And in the running world, I told him “you have 3 choices. Distance, speed, or duration. Those are the challenges out there”.?
Now, I might be missing something, but here’s where my mind went.?
Distance - 50 miles, 100 miles, 200, 250 miles, etc. (and yes, these races do exist)
Speed - run a sub 3-hour marathon
Duration - 8, 12, 24 hour race
Then on top of this, you can add difficulty. In the running world, difficulty comes in 2 forms. Altitude and elevation gain. Leadville for instance is at 10,000+ feet for the majority of the 100 miler and all of the 50 miler. Plus, it has 10,000 ft of gain on the course.
Other courses have more elevation gain. Not many are higher, which is why Leadville is called the Race Across The Sky.
In all of this, there are choices. But that choice is his.?
And to this, we each have our own path to follow. Whether it’s going fast. Going long. Or seeing how far we can go in a given amount of time.
Whatever it is, you have to choose it. Much like your path through life. We have our own paths to follow. We have our own choices to choose.?
Be inspired by others. Feel called to do something great with your life. But don’t let others choose for you. It’s you life to lead and you have to make your own choices and live with the choices you make.?