I could NEVER do that...

It is 3:00am, and I'm sitting here wide awake in a hotel room in St. Louis.  I can't sleep, and I'm supposed to get up in an hour to eat a bagel anyway.

At around 6:30am, I plan on leaving this hotel room and finding my way to Market St.  I'll need to squirm my way into Corral 17.  That's where they keep the slow people.

At around 7:15ish, I will cross the start line at the Rock N' Roll St. Louis 1/2 Marathon.

I will "run" for 13.1 miles.

I'm hoping that around 10:00ish I will cross thye finish line.

I'm hoping that by 11:00ish I am back in the hotel room, taking a shower, and after coating my hamstrings with BioFreeze, taking a nap.

As I was getting ready to leave for this trip, I had a lot of people say to me "I could NEVER do that!"  I totally get where they are coming from.  I have said the same thing too.

Actually, I worded it more like "I hate running with a passion that can't be described with the English language!"  I thought those that ran those 1/2 Marathon things were masochists, idiots, weirdos...

Well here I am.  I am a masochist.  I am an idiot.  I am a weirdo.  And it turns out, anyone can be.

I am a slow runner.  In technical terms, I MIGHT be called a jogger.  I'm pretty slow.  But I get out there and do it.

Starting to run is one of the hardest things I ever have done.  Simply because it isn't something that you can just jump in and start doing.  It takes time.  It takes patience.  It takes baby steps.

Back in January of this year, I couldn't run more than 200 yards without stopping.  But I kept at it.  A little at a time.  Small improvements.  Longer distances.  Fewer walk breaks.  And here I am.  Timing chip on my shoe, race bib all ready to go.

I will never be an elite athlete.  It is unlikely that I will ever win a race.  But I have accomplished something even more important.  I have surprised and amazed myself.  I have broke through the self-imposed limitations that I have had for myself for decades.  I have accomplished something that I never thought possible, even if I don't make my goal time today.  And I now impart on you a well known cliche...

If I can do it, YOU can do it.

Seriously...have you seen me?  It's true!!

I hear a lot of talk about people's bucket lists.  I think we should also work on our "I could NEVER" lists.  Because saying "I could NEVER..." is sort of like saying "I'm not good enough to..."

Turns out, that's just a load of crap.

I'm not saying that you need to get up and start running half marathons for the rest of your life.  They are brutal.  This will be my last.  But there are other things that we tell our selves that we will never be able to do.  Some are realistic..I'll never win a gold medal at the Olympics.  But others are just on the other side of the limitations that we set for ourselves.  It could be running, or doing a triathlon, or going back to school, or trying out for a part in a play, or singing in public, or any of a million things that we think we could never do.

I'm going to go eat my bagel now, and try and get a little more sleep.

What's on your "I could NEVER..." list?