Healthy Fear

Know what is getting me out of bed to run these days?

Motivation? Not really. I don’t feel like running.

A sense of duty to my body to stay in shape? Eh. Not so much that either.

I’m scared to death of the upcoming race? Yep. That’s the one.

Six weeks from tomorrow race weekend begins: 13.1 miles on Saturday, 26.2 miles on Sunday.

Last week I ran 16 miles on Sunday. The furthest I have ever run. Yes, I did a marathon last spring, but we trained to run 5 miles, walk 2, the entire route. I didn’t walk at all for the 16.

This weekend we do 18. Then a couple shorter “long” runs. Then 20. Then we are just 2 weeks to race days.

At this point in training, I am tired. The long hours of running are getting harder and harder to find. To be honest, some days I would like nothing more than to just quit.

But I paid for this race. I have bought an airline ticket. There’s no such thing as quitting at this point. And I really am scared that if I miss workouts at this point, it is going to affect whether or not I can even finish this challenge.

It’s a healthy fear. It’s not keeping me up at night, but it is keeping me running to finish this goal.

Is there anything you have a healthy fear of these days that keeps you moving in the right direction?