The Brainstorm

I’m gonna run a marathon!

I actually decided to run a marathon yesterday, but I made myself take a 24-hour “cooling off period” before announcing it to the world, to make sure I have not, in fact, gone TOTALLY INSANE!

You see, I ran my first marathon twenty years ago, as I was getting ready to turn 40. I wanted to have run a marathon before I turned that magic number, so I got together with some other people who were training and I managed to cross the finish line on my first 26.2 mile course just a few weeks before crossing that magic 40-year-old threshold. It was exhilarating, and filled me with a sense of accomplishment that has rarely been equalled. So I was thrilled and hooked.

I ran a couple more marathons within a few years, but I bet it’s been 15 years now since I’ve run one. Life, it seems, has a way of getting in the way.

Then last Saturday night at our Video Explorations discussion here at The Human Potential Center, we started talking about aging and how our expectations have a huge effect on what we allow ourselves to do. If we think we’re too old for something, we create a self-fulfilling prophecy that keeps us from even trying. So we never expand our options, never get the exercise that would come with a new activity, and pretty soon we ARE physically limited and unable to do what we used to be physically and/or emotionally capable of..

I was thinking about all that as I was taking my regular hour-long run yesterday. I’m getting ready to turn 60 next year, and I think it would be REALLY COOL if I could run another marathon before then, just like I did 20 years ago. So why not? I’m only going to turn 60 once in my entire life, and now is my chance to make it even more memorable.

On top of celebrating my birthday by running, I can also celebrate something else. I founded The Human Potential Center 25 years ago next spring, and I can make that anniversary even more special by doing something amazing in honor of those 25 years.

So get ready, everyone! Here I come!