I started running just over 2 years ago. A friend and I decided it would be fun and challenging to sign up for a 4th of July 5k in 2019. I started doing some running to train and I was god awful. Just terrible. I had never run a full mile without stopping in my life. Sure, I was involved in fitness and athletics my whole life but running just felt like punishment - and so it was. I trained because I was afraid I would fail and let my buddy down.

On the day of the race I was so nervous. Everyone looks like such serious runners at those things. We got in place at the starting line and we took off runnin'. Made it the whole way without stopping and that felt like a victory... but I also had this feeling that I had more in the tank. I didn't leave it all on the pavement and I knew it. I knew that there was more for me in the running world becasue I felt it. So in the words of Forrest Gump, after that day, "I just kept running."

There was a 1.43 mile loop near my house with a few steep hills. I would drive up there and just run that loop once, as fast as possible. Each time I went back I would look at my previous time and commit to beating it. I did that for weeks - a little faster every time. It got to the point where it was so grueling that I would get the same race day anxiety and rush becasue I knew how hard I had to push myself in order to beat my previous time. I would finish gasping for air and damn near puking every single time. But I got fast.

I never knew if I was going to be able to beat my last time but I just kept trying... and I just kept beating it......Until one day I finally couldn't do it. I ran as hard as I possibly could and I just wasn't fast enough. I was dissapointed but I knew that was my 100%.

I had gone through a period of sufficient goal-directed suffering and the world of running opened up for me. After that I started running some different routes, adding more milage incrementally. I signed up for another 5k and set the goal of finishng in less than 20 minutes. That seemed right beyond the cusp of my abilities at the time. I did not know if I would be able to achieve that goal but I backed myself into a corner and demanded more than what was comfortable. I failed. I did not break 20 minutes. I ran that 5k in 21 minutes and 15 seconds.

I didn't hang my head. I didn't sulk.

It was affirmation that I was setting worthwile goals. I signed up for another race not long after with the only goal of breaking 20 minutes....you bet your ass I did. 19:35. I went to the time table to get my official time and they said, "You took 3rd in your age group" My head spun... "WHAT?!" I couldn't belive that. I went from not even knowing if I could finish one of these things-to actually being competitive at them?? I got home from that race and told myself and a few friends, "Well, I guess I gotta try and win one of these things now." I hear some people call that arrogance.

I trained hard and I won my age group in the next race a few months later with a time of 18:48. Now-a-days I run 5 kilometers most days before work.

The point is that I learned to set goals that seemed UNattainable.... and that has launched me. I like to call it "Setting Goals In The Gray". The gray is what we call the space between known and unknown territory. The space between the light and the darkness. The light would be all of the things that you believe attainable. And the darkness being the impossibilities. I think the best policy is to reach juussttt beyond what you know, into the realm of improbability. You never know what might happen.

I just recently did this with a sprint triathlon, my first ever. (500m swim, 11 mile ride, 3.14 mile run) I am not a swimmer. Let me repeat, I am NOT a swimmer...but I am a pretty good biker. So, I looked at the winning times from previous years and thought, "You know what would be crazy? Trying to win this thing."

A comfortable goal might have been to just cross the finish line at my first triathlon. I knew pretty well that I was going to be able to do that, even if I had to doggy paddle the swim.

Instead, I went the step further to really push the bounds of possibility. It forced me to train HARD. Attempting the winning paces was a high-wire act for me. I spent hours upon hours in pools learning how to swim. On race day, I really had no clue how things were going to go. I believed that if everything went perfectly, I could be competitive but there was a part of me still that felt as if that was a reach. I raced as hard as I could. The goal was to do it in under an hour. I failed...but I did finish in 1-hour 7-minutes and took first in my age group - something that most people thought I didn't stand a chance of accomplishing. So take your goals a step further, and who knows where you'll end up.