Whatcha want? Aiming for less than 1%

Tara from Biggest Loser Season 7 - 26.2 finish

I was watching The Biggest Loser last night and the remaining four got to run a marathon. They had nearly no real training time and anyone who's been down the road of having to get marathon ready can appreciate the scratching of the head of how on earth are these people preparing to run 26.2 in just 30 days? It's probably even a little reckless that the audience isn't warned to "not try this at home." 

Who knows? I have to hope and assume that they've got some kind of really smart sport trainers that are getting these folks there and that the months of intense training (though not traditional running training) leading up to the marathon has enabled these folks to run without injury. 

As debatable as the training / TV show thing is, the one thing I do take away from these contestants is how much each of these contestants wanted it. Every single one of them wanted to finish that marathon no matter what. They were scared, nervous and apprehensive but they all made up their minds to run it/walk it/crawl it - if need be. And they all succeeded.

Months ago, I wrote a blog about want vs can't and that theme still comes up for me, often. WE CAN do anything, the question is do we want to? Do we want to bundle up and run in the wind and cold? Do we want to do long run day when you also have a ton of Christmas shopping to do? Do we want to run 2 miles, 6 miles, 12 miles or 26.2 miles?  

Do we want to re-evaluate, face our weaknesses, deal with our fears, suck it up and do it anyway?

The answer for me is often, maybe surprisingly, NO. I often do not want to run in the wind or do a long run day. When the weather is bad, I don't "want" to run on a treadmill. I often "want" to sleep late, chuck it all or eat pancakes and sausage. I want to order pizza and watch reruns of 90210 (the original).

I constantly have to talk myself into want. Wanting to do this, still takes a lot of mental work but that mental work is crucial.  If you tell yourself you can or can't, want or want not - you are right.  

I WANT to feel like a winner, I WANT to attain and maintain good health, I WANT to attain and maintain my ideal weight, I WANT to cross that finish line... Because I have all those wants, I choose to keep in the fight because I can.

I always have to remind myself to not lose sight of the big want for the temporary temptation. Whether it be skipping training or eating something bad - that "want" may feel good in the moment but will do nothing for me or the most important goals.  They do nothing for what I really want.

When the host of the Biggest Loser welcomed the four contestants to the starting line of the marathon, she mentioned, "Less than 1% off the American population will ever run and complete a full marathon." WOW! I think somedays I lose sight of how special of a journey this is because I've surrounded myself with so many blogging buddies who are running marathons that it seems almost like "everyone is doing it." But everyone is not doing it.  I am doing it - because I WANT to and I CAN and... 

I WANT to be in that less than 1% club.

Today I ran 6 miles that I kinda didn't want to do but am now so happy I did. I'm also working on wanting to do a long run of 12 miles this Friday. I might as well start looking forward to it, because either way, it's happening.

XO

Jen