Life as an Ultra-marathon

I look at life, and I see an ultra-marathon race.  In order to run this ultra-marathon race, you need to be prepared.  The same goes for life.  In my younger years, I lived with my parents, went to school, and learned a little bit about the 'important' things, and graduated and went to college.  When I went to college, I still didn't know what to do and went through it slowly coming to a point where I would depend on myself, and managed to get through college debt free (thanks to my parents or the first couple of years).  My father managed to organize my college life in such a way that I would become independent, little by little, and because of that, I was able to balance work with school, and still enjoy the college life.  Then comes the adult world which I was dreading.  Fortunate to get a job, I managed to rent a place and started saving money... which is where I am right now.  My journey is far from over, but I managed to step up a little and go forward.

Imagine a gosling becoming a fledgling.  First, the wings needs to be strong enough and have the right feathers, and if they don't have it, then they won't get off the ground.  Second, they need to have some kind of momentum to get going, so that they would be able to take off.  Finally, when the momentum and the wing strength/feathers are right on, the fledgling is able to take flight and soar throughout the sky, getting stronger as they experience the sky.

We are like geese (maybe a little better) because when we are born, we aren't ready to take over the world.  We need parents to care for us, nurture us, teach us... and help us grow.  Once we gain the proper skills, we are able to take care of ourselves, and are able to fly off.  Flying solo may be fun, but flying with a group helps us get further.

In an ultra-marathon race, there are steps to be taken in order to finish.  Preparations are necessary in order for an individual to complete the race.  It doesn't matter who you are because it starts at the same place.  We start with running.  As your legs get stronger with the running, you get faster and you can go longer.  The constant training (with breaks) push you to get stronger and endure.  You take the right steps to go from training once a week to training 5-6 times a week, getting your body used to the running so that you can accomplish your goal.  You might take steps by signing up for races and gain experience about water stops and running in a crowd.  When you're training, you control what you eat, how you train, and what you do.  By the time you come to the ultra-marathon, you have the training, the experience, the confidence, and you're ready to run and finish the race.  When you start, you start smart, knowing that you're going to be running a distance that is further than you've experienced beforehand.  While running, you might trip on roots, get a little tired or dehydrated, but you keep on going, stopping a few minutes to rest at the water stops.  As the end approaches, you're tired, you want to stop, but you don't.  Your body doesn't listen to you as much, but you push on... until you finish.

Let's live our lives like how we train and run for an ultra-marathon.

(Today, I took it easy, running 10.83 miles in 1:35:58, a 8:52 min/mile average, and played floor hockey for two hours)