Sometimes when I'm running and the going gets particularly tough, I like to imagine my grandparents standing on the side of the road cheering me on. I know it sounds kind of funny, but picturing my grandfather in his olive green winter coat and fedora, standing there with his twinkle in his eye, and my grandmother who I only know in photos, as cancer took her before I was old enough to have any memories of her, often gives me the boost I need to push through a mental wall.
Last night I ended up doing my workout outside on the MIT track and it was darn windy. Like 20+ mph gusts windy. I was tired before I even left the house, and completing 6 sets of mile repeats in around 7:15 felt almost impossible at times. Enter: mind games.
First, I tried thinking about how badass I was even attempting track work in the wind.
Then, I pretended I was on a sailboat. "I LOVE the wind! Yay! Look how fast we're going!"
Then, I decided to kill mother nature with kindness and think to myself, "Thank you Lord for this delightful cooling breeze!"
Eventually, it was up to grandpa and grandma to get me through the workout. And of course, they came through like they always do.
On the short car ride home from the track (I know I only live a mile away. Long story why I drove...), the song I associate with my grandfather came on the radio, and it wasn't until I was walking up the steps to my apartment that the eery coincidence dawned on me. As I was drying my hair after showering, I became convinced my grandparents were, in fact, at the track cheering me on, and started thinking of my grandpa's favorite poem, which I blogged 2 years ago amid injury. I'd like to share it again, and thank him for watching over me last night:
Don't Quit
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When they might have won, had they stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you can never tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit!
