It's All in Your Head

Although me and Homer are doing this together, we are an ocean apart. So throughout this experience, I've begun having conversations in my head.

Before I get too far let me say plainly: I would not be able to do this without my little buddy in Ames, Iowa. In fact, even today as I was attempting to convince myself to get out of my warm bed and run in the cold rain I got an email to my phone from Homer. Even though the email was about football woes (our teams didn't have a good showing this Sunday) it reminded me that she's getting out of bed to run and so can I. And I ran.

However, in the end, this marathon is our own. The 26.2 miles will be run by our legs alone. So how do we go about getting ourselves through this training?

The book me and Homer are working through for this process emphasizes the importance of positive self-talk in marathon training/running. Though directing our self-talk might sound creepy and a bit bunk, the reality is we say things to ourselves about ourselves and our lives all time, so why not fill yourself up with good things?

The book suggests we come up with a paragraph to repeat to ourselves over and over so that we think strong, positive thoughts about our training. Here's my paragraph and with it a glimpse of the things I've been struggling with so far:

I am a marathoner. I love getting up early to run. I love the first half of runs; I feel energized and fast. I love seeing students on my runs. I am not in perfect shape but I can run perfectly. I am a marathoner.

As cold is setting in I'm beginning to realize my need for motivation greatly increase, even if it's in the form of a creepily positive paragraph I repeat again and again in my own head.

(I hate Favre!)