Slow & Steady RUNS The Race...

Ugh...January in Wisconsin...Is anyone else sharing this sentiment with me right now? I know they say it's all relative or, "It could be worse." I get that, I feel that, but I want to have a little bit of a pity party. So if you could, give me, say, 30 seconds of your time? I promise, I'll suck it up after that.

It's All Relative...

This month has bit the big one!

The stomach bug hit our house along with a cold and fever which led to multiple, MULTIPLE days off of school for our Kindergartner, who happens to hate missing school. (Proud mom, struggling parent when it comes to explaining why we can't go to school and be Boogers-McGee sneezing germ goblins on our friends.)

Add on top of that our little bug, Julianna, turning 3, (Ninja Turtle-themed birthday party had to happen of course) a busy 8-12 hour night work schedule for my husband (we're only half way through that one...), and just the general fun that is winter marathon training in Wisconsin (SERIOUSLY?!?! Another ice storm!?!? Not the treadmill again!?!?) I'm ready to say, "GOODBYE, January!! If you would've been able to get your s$#t together at any point, I might had missed you. But, for all aforementioned reasons, I won't. So peace out."

Alright, I'm done whining.  Thank you for your time.

Mmm...cake....

You might be thinking to yourself, "Jill, what does any of this have to do with you telling us how your marathon training is going?"  To you I say, "Maybe nothing. But I'm home with my kids most of the time and can't really complain to a 3-year old about how said 3-year old stuck a crayon in the dishwasher which went unnoticed until after the rinse cycle. Sooo...

Tag. You're it." :) 

In all seriousness, I'll get back to where the reality of my day-to-day life fits in in just a bit. But before that, here's a little story and little catch up how my training runs for the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon have been going thus far...

There's only 1 name in this book
...and it's Ross...
and maybe Justin Bieber..

My husband, Ross, God bless his annoyingly intelligent and natural-born athlete soul, is a great runner. He played professional rugby for a bit in the Navy, and to this day, he can outrun me in any race...without training.

Of course, having been a runner for over half of my life, you can imagine that it gets difficult to work hard at a goal while someone else breezes right through it. While I'm happy for him, it's hard not to compare myself to his race paces. I find myself thinking, "Well, if he can do that, so can I", among other not as nice things....  

So this month, I've been pushing; pushing my limits and pushing myself. Now, don't get me wrong, pushing yourself to be stronger is a great thing! I'm not saying you shouldn't push yourself to test your own personal limits. 

In fact, that's exactly what I AM saying. 

The problem is, while I've been pushing my long run paces (the training runs where I should be running at my goal marathon pace or slower) way beyond what I know will be my comfortable marathon pace, I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it because I think, "This is what he's running, and this is where I SHOULD be."

Thinking this way, I'm not pushing myself to meet my personal standards, to set a PR or even achieve my personal mileage goals. I'm pushing myself to meet his.  

And this pushing is going to lead me to not being able to run the race at all as I already see signs of past medical issues peeking around the corner. 

I think we all at times get caught up in comparing ourselves to others. I like to call it the "Better Than Me" game. Going back to my little rant at the beginning of this blog, I can see many times this month where I moped and thought, "If only my kids weren't sick, or my husband was working less, things would be better." Or in running, "If only I was faster, had more time to train, I would be a better runner." 

But here's the thing about playing this whole "Better Than Me" game that leads to epic failure...

BETTER is a completely subjective term. So if you constantly define your better by someone else's standards, at what point will you finally be better!?!   

Repeat, repeat, repeat...

Repeat after me: I am not you and you are not me. 

I'm not the ultra marathoner training for the Boston. I'm not the person at the gym lifting 300 lbs. over my head with ease. I am an admirer of these people and their dedication, and maybe some day I will be them. But they are not better than me nor am I better than them.

We are just different people trying to achieve our different "betters". 

My mantra for February and as I continue my training for the Green Bay Cellcom Marathon on May 21st is this: "Slow and Steady RUNS the Race". I will try and focus on the end goal of simply completing my 26.2, to slow down and focus on being a healthy and happy runner. 

Now if you'll excuse me, the dog just ate someone's mac & cheese and I'm pretty sure Julianna is "cleaning" the toilet with her toothbrush.  

Make today your best day yet!...And I mean that completely subjectively.... :) 

Jill~