"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.”

- George S. Patton, U.S. Army General, 1912 Olympian

Saturday, January 7, 2012

In Search of IT

IT gets you up before everyone else.
IT gets you out the door when its dark and cold and raining.
IT is the reason you're in bed early and the reason you lay awake thinking, visualizing, hoping.
IT pushes you through the last few miles and keeps you on pace.
IT tells you to keep going when you're sure you've given it your last ounce of energy.
IT keeps you coming back for more, telling you that you can do that just a little bit better. A little bit faster. A little bit harder.
IT is why you do what you do.

I haven't had much of IT lately. 
I certainly didn't have IT this morning as I fought myself to get dressed and on the road.
IT wasn't anywhere to be found during my first few miles; just a long slow boring Saturday run.
Man, I really needed IT.
And then I saw IT. IT was about 100 yards in front of me, moving at roughly the same speed I was.
Go get IT.

And I nearly did.
But then IT took a shortcut through the park and re-emerged a mile later, now a 1/4 mile in front and already moving up the hill.
I was running out of road, only two miles left.
Time to dig deep and go get IT. 
Run IT down.

Passed IT. 
Ran away from IT. 

Found IT.