Wednesday Wisdom: It Takes Time to Build

Wednesday Wisdom, Wednesday Motivation for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Athletes, Small Business

As the girl at the Dunkin’ Donuts window took my money for my cold brew coffee and noticed I was sweating, she also asked me if I was having a good morning. I told her I just completed a training run for the Boston Half Marathon in November. She said, “How did it go? I’m interested because I’m trying to run my first 5k in the fall.”

I told her my training method of starting slow by building miles and combining a run/walk sequence needed due to my age and asthma to complete any run. She said, “My boyfriend told me I couldn’t walk and run, only run!” I told her to ignore her boyfriend and listen to me and read up on the run-walk method, a training and racing technique popularized by Olympian Jeff Galloway.

In order to obtain my 2017 Boston Marathon medal, I had to complete the Boston Marathon in six hours or less. I trained specifically with the run-walk method, timing myself, knowing if I could run a certain amount of time, and then fast walk to catch my breath and rest my legs, I could achieve my goal. It took lots of miles to build to that six-hour time frame but I did it and in April 2017 got my medal with a marathon time of 5 hours and 52 minutes.

Like anything in life, you can’t just start and complete something big in one day, not if it is a major goal like running a marathon, building a business, starting a Ph.d. program, or even having a baby. It takes time! Patience and getting in the “miles” are what is needed to be confident you can do what you set out to do. You don’t succeed at something because you want to succeed.

As I drove away from Dunkin’ Donuts sipping on my much-needed cold coffee, I told her to trust me and begin a walk-run program because if she did, she could accomplish her goal. She thanked me with a big smile on her face – and that was worth more than any successful training run in my books.