To Begin

"Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're probably

right." - Henry Ford

While Ford may not have been a runner, his words touch on one of the most important aspects of being successful athlete, which is believing in yourself. Keep this in mind when planning and setting goals for your next race.

Avoid setting your goals too low. If you go after something you know is easily attainable, you lose the challenge, sense of accomplishment and reward of achievement.  Instead, believe in yourself and set the bar a little higher.  Achieving something you initially thought out of reach is an incredible and empowering feeling.

Of course with any goal that stretches you there is the chance of missing the mark, which is ok. Don’t ever look at this as a failure but instead focus onyou’re your achievements. In pushing yourself towards a goal I guarantee you will learn a lot about yourself. Successful athletes will still believe in themselves, and apply those lessons learned to hitting that goal the next time. 

I am envisioning this blog to be a source of motivation,
accountability, knowledge, training, scheduling and fun. Many of the
people I hope will be participating in this are running the Marine
Corps Marathon in 19 weeks. However I would love for this to be an
open forum for anyone seeking motivation guidance for running or other
events.

For anyone training for an upcoming race especially the Marine Corps,
don't be afraid to put your goals out here for all to see. No one will
be judging you on whether or not you actually succeed in hitting your
time; finishing your race or accomplishing whatever it is you set out
to do. Rather I hope we serve as a source of strength and motivation
and when necessary a bit of accountability (note this can take the
form of prodding, poking and jest).
Please email me at fritz.jt@gmail.com so I can add you as an author to
the blog. It would be great to see everyone post anything they wish
to share about training tips,
group runs, motivational quotes/stories, queries, advice, etc.
I'll go ahead and put my goal out there. I want to qualify for the
Boston Marathon, which requires a finishing time of 3:10:00. I have
never run a sub 4:00:00 marathon, and could barely hit an 8:45 mile in
6th grade, so this will not be easy for me and I would definitely
appreciate constant accountability and motivation.
What are your goals? How can we help you reach them?