Pushing Your Limits

I have a tendency to gauge whether or not I can do something [in regards to running] based on what others can or do accomplish.  I'm not really sure how to explain this except that if my sister can complete a half marathon, then I can even if I'm not as fast.  If my friend can train while being a mom, so can I.  Often I ask others about what they've done and how they've done it to try and gauge what I might accomplish.  Every once in a while though, it doesn't occur to me to check with other people, and that tends to serve me well.

Example one: yesterday I ran 12 miles pushing my 25 pound stroller with my 15 pound baby in it.  It didn't occur to me that this isn't something that people do every day.  Not that there aren't people who do, because a friend of mine did it last weekend with his one year old (but he's a he, which surely means he's stronger than me).  So, I guess that was what I heard most recently and I thought "well, he pushed his kid 12 miles, I'll be pushing mine 12 miles next weekend".  So, I did!  I'm very thankful that my partner in blogging/running crime here didn't tell me before I went that she's never pushed Bug more than 6 miles.  I probably would have quit.  Instead, she texted me during the run and encouraged me!  Afterwards I posted a pic of Sugar and I on fb and a few people commented that they had never pushed the stroller more than ___ number of miles.

I pushed my limits, I did more than I ever dreamed that I could, which proves to me that I can always do more.  Too many times we let that voice in our head convince us that we can't!  My favorite quote I've seen lately was on Pinterest, and it said "The voice in your head that tells you that you can't is WRONG!".  Amen to that.  Don't let the past dictate your future.  Don't let what you have done before be the end.  Don't let a goal that you didn't reach in the past stop you from pushing forward now!  Just because you haven't or you didn't doesn't mean that you can't!!

Five years ago I had never run 2 miles.  I thought marathons were for amazing people, but not that I could be one of those amazing people.  I want Sugar and Bug and anyone reading this to know that you CAN do anything that you put your mind to.  Your body will do it, if you can make your mind allow it.  Our thoughts destroy us, they can keep us down.  They make me beat myself up for having a slower pace one day than I did three days before, when 7 months ago I was giving birth via surgery.  I'll end with this quote because I think many times we don't realize how this applies to the things we think we can't do, but it is applicable...

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words.  Watch your words, for they become actions.  Watch your actions for they become habit.  Watch your habits, for they become character.  Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny."

May your thoughts begin with "I CAN run (or whatever you want to accomplish)"