Back into shape – Achieving what seems like the impossible with just one step at a time

It’s always around that time of year beginning in January when we start making resolutions. I personally don’t make New Year resolutions, I make New Day resolutions.

Results = Small, Simple, Step

Whether you are trying to declutter your house, wanting to shift some weight, or deciding to run a marathon the only thing that is in front of you and that goal is your mindset.

I can give an example of what seemed like an almost impossible goal for me, both events happened within the last 2 years so I would say they are very much still relevant to my current state of health.

I was participating in a half marathon, some may say what’s so impossible about achieving that goal. Many people take part in half-marathons up and down the country, they train their bodies and their minds so that when they hit that mental lock (the wall) they switch off their minds to any discomfort and get themselves to the finish line. The reason why it was considered so impossible to me is that despite being a multiple half-marathon runner in former years (at the time 5 years to be exact), I signed up 3 weeks before the event. At the time I had given up running many years earlier, I did 3 HiiT sessions and suddenly the half marathon date upon me. My body simply wasn’t ready for 2+ hours of non-stop running. The morning came and with only 4 hours of sleep we were standing in the middle of a car park at 5am waiting to walk towards the starting line. That was the moment I said to myself ‘why on earth did I sign up for this’. If you’ve ever taken part in a marathon you’ll know that there is lots of waiting around before the race kicks off, during the waiting time you usually get rid of all excess items and only have on your person what you will be running with. So on a freezing cold morning, you really do sometimes ask yourself, ‘what am I doing here?‘.

Long story short, I did finish in a surprisingly good time considering I hadn’t trained. I jogged and walked the course, when I saw the finish line in sight I mustered up enough energy to sprint across the line. During the event, I told myself there was no way no matter what, that I was going to quit the race, words of encouragement would at intervals come from my running partner and complete strangers who had been listening to my friend tell me how awesome I was doing and the fact that I hadn’t trained at all. What got me through the event was that I just put one foot in front of the other, I told myself that I could do it and I did it.

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