Running to our Limits (and beyond)
Niess as wrapped up his run across Iowa.In reading his post yesterday, what struck me more than the accomplishment was his sentiments about "what's next". Here is an excerpt:
I think I want to do this again, in about two years. I see a couple of options. Either have a race setting, were people sign up to run across the state. They each have a crew and certain rules for getting across.
OR
I do this again but up it to 40-50 miles a day.
Wow - he tested himself and found that it was all there and maybe even more! Reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from Arthur C. Clarke:
The only way to discover the limits of the impossible is to go beyond them into the impossible.
Isn't that what running is about for many of us? We take on races or training to see what we can do. Once we reach that point, we realize our limits are a little farther out than we realized. With late summer/fall big events around the corner, many of us are hitting that part of our training that seemed (or still seems) challenging a few months ago when we were just kicking into high gear. And now is the time to test ourselves and expand our limits of what is possible. Happy training!
Photo on Flickr by sommerspics
Wow, 307 miles in 11 days, huh? That's a test for sure.
That is one of the things I love about running. Not only does it make me feel great, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I could do this 10 years ago. Funny how things work out.
Posted by: laurel | July 07, 2007 at 10:28 PM
Amy, Thanks for the comment on my blog. That's wild - 307 miles and I'm having problems with a 10 miler. This is really something I needed to read at this point in my training. It's physically been a tough couple of weeks for me in running. Thanks again! and I look forward to reading some posts from your blog.
Posted by: Mendy | July 08, 2007 at 06:15 PM
Amy, Thanks for the comment on my blog. That's wild - 307 miles and I'm having problems with a 10 miler. This is really something I needed to read at this point in my training. It's physically been a tough couple of weeks for me in running. Thanks again! and I look forward to reading some posts from your blog.
Posted by: Mendy | July 08, 2007 at 06:15 PM
Tom and Amy - thanks for the comments. I enjoy your site as well! I have a friend who is going to be biking across Iowa soon - I can't imagine running or biking that distance! Tom - I am training for the Louisville Marathon in October. It is a very small field (I think there are like 500 entrants) and it is a fast, flat course. My goal is to simply finish my first marathon, and then start training for a possible BQ time in the future.
Posted by: Meredith | July 08, 2007 at 06:24 PM
I didn't think I would be able to make it more than 2 days. I only started running 2 years ago and I still can't believe that I was able to go that far. Well, it certainly helped that I went slow!!
Our minds are certainly the biggest obstacle to overcome!
Posted by: Brad | July 10, 2007 at 06:20 PM