Dreams

Dreams... they are things that a few strive for, and even fewer achieved.  It is something that can bring us up to where no one has gone before... or it can be out of our grasp...  The thing about dreams is that in order to achieve it, you either have to have exceptional talent and get there... or you're dumb enough to not see how impossible it is... yet have the guts to try it out and see if you succeed.  Dreams are further away than goals.  It is a possibility of finishing.  While goals are attainable, dreams are what you possibly might be able to do... if you're lucky.

My aim is to make my dream turn into a reality.  I've been off this blogging spree because my father had a stroke and I rushed to Japan.  After I came back to the states, I've jumped back into coaching, schooling, ministering, and running (of course), but haven't felt the urge to get back into blogging because I frankly had no time... but I figure that now when I've gotten everything figured out and back into my rhythm, I can somewhat go back to where I used to be.  I can't say I'll be blogging as often as before, but I will be running like crazy, back to where I want to be, so that I could take on the world.  Now that I've got my life back into some sort of rhythm, I've been running 8 miles here and there, with the occasional 17 mile with morning and evening runs put together.

Since I've been training the cross country team, I haven't had too much time working on improving myself, but since I do run with the team, with the little I was able to train, I winged The North Face Endurance Challenge in Atlanta, and finished just under 11 hours to qualify for the Western States 100, where once again, I will put my name in the lottery in order to hope that I get chosen.  Since running the race, I've made a few schedule changes, allowing me to run a little more, and so now I'm hoping that running 70 minutes every day (minimally) would get my aerobic threshold to where it needs to be.

My DREAM (simply put) is to become an endurance athlete.  My goal is to analyze everything I can, learn as much as possible, and work towards making that possibility into something definite.  It's taken a little while, but I'm back on the path again, and working towards getting myself into the shape I want to be in order to tackle the road ahead of me.  There are several paths I've thought of going through in order to become that, and the best path for me is to become a known runner, the best runner that I can possibly be... and to me, I believe that I can take on the world.

Now that my dad cannot work anymore, my deadline for becoming an ultra athlete has come a little sooner than before, and now I need to take proper steps in order to be able to get to where I am.  I'm no longer running for just me and the people I want to impact.  I'm running for my father, and that is a burden I can't drop.  Encouragement and motivation will definitely be a key point, because I need to work hard as he is working hard to getting back to being able to walk.  If I succeed, there's a path I can take to ease my families life and provide something.  Normally, I would have just stopped running, found a proper job, and worked extra shifts to earn money to provide my family with the money that we need... but I know that that isn't what my dad would want me to do.  He would want me to follow my dreams.  In throwing my dreams away, I would end up putting more stress in his life, and therefore, the best option for me is to pursue my dream 100% and get to a point where I can be the best.  I'm giving myself a year to get to where I want to be, and once a year has gone by, I'll see if I need to give up the dream to provide for my family. 

My dream isn't just to become the best endurance athlete.  I want to be a person that can look back and never regret the decisions I've made.  I'm going for my dreams, I'm not going to give up, and I'm going to get to where I need to be, because I'm fighting for both my father and myself.

Dreams.  They're just goals in the distant, but I'm going to make time to reel it in and attain it.