I know I can

I know I can
I know I can
Be what I wanna be
Be what I wanna be
If I work hard at it
I'll be where I wanna be
I'll be where I wanna be


Nas - I know I can

2010 was a strange and winding road in my relationship with running. From the cheers of the crowd on Bolyston street at the Boston Marathon to a wooden mile post at the Burning River 100 where I dropped out, running taught me some important life lessons as I move forward.

1. You have to be fully committed to your goal.

Whatever the goal, you have to have the willingness to see it through or you will fail. It doesn't matter if you have previously met the goal before and are trying to better it,because that doesn't lessen your chances of not failing if you try again. Neither does just saying that you are going to do something make it that you will. You must commit to the training or the process both physically and mentally. Sometimes it will be the mental challenge that will determine the rate of your success.

I firmly believe that your ability to finish is determined long before race day. You can't be at the starting line and hope to find "it" that day. "It" was found long ago out on the training runs. Race day is really a celebration of that training. It is icing on the cake.

2. Running with old people is cool.

Getting a chance to run with my dad again were some of my favorite runs this year. To watch him restart his running career again and get the chance to run a couple of races again proved to me that it doesn't matter your age, size, or shape that running can rejuvenate you. It can make you feel like a kid again. It can bring back together a father and son whose roads had taken them down different roads.


3. The fire can be relit

My relationship being with running being what it has been over the years has sometimes lent itself to just being one of obligation. There wasn't any real goal or destination in mind just daily forward motion. For me, that is really ok. I need running as much as I need my daily cup of java. Its not an option, it is a necessity. Sometimes, the simple act of moving forward will lead me down the path back to desire, back to fire, and focusing on a goal.

I wouldn't call the time I spent during the latter part of this year a funk at all, because I never saw it as that. I knew I didn't have a goal to focus on and knew that if i just kept running, that I would find it. Find it, I have and like Nas said in his song " I know I can."


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