Lessons I learned from being a Marathon Runner – 1 you need good shoes

While I create amazing organic and natural skin care products and I do like to talk about them with anyone who will listen, I felt compelled to share with you some stories of my life and the lessons I learned along the way. This is the first post in a series of lessons I learned from running Marathons.
I was at a business networking event recently and I had the chance to sit down and have lunch with a complete stranger. It was un-planned and just seemed to happen. My intention was to sit and work on my lap top during lunch but lunch decided to take a different turn.
So there I sat with Karen, a very nice women who has an amazing business she is launching. Since she came from the school system, she wanted to create a consulting company that helped troubled teens and their families. As we talked about all kinds of topics during our leisurely lunch the subject of the Marathon that was running through town came up.
I told her that I had been a Marathoner and had successfully completed several marathons and Half Marathons a couple of years ago. I told her that I have a deep and abounding respect for runners. They are an amazing group of people. I also told her that I learned a great deal about life from my brief time running.
I actually completed 4 full marathons, 5 half marathons and several 10ks. I still have all the medals to prove it and, more importantly, to remind me. I had never been a runner. I was quite the opposite! My step father was a runner years ago but I was the fat kid who didn’t do any sporting things. I think I was chubby from birth and just never stopped being chubby which later became plain old fat.
When I was 42 a friend of mine decided it would be a good idea for us to run. Why? I have no idea! But I said I would train and support my friend for the half marathon not knowing what I was getting into, just a leap of faith.
So what’s the first thing you do? Ask an expert. I worked with a man named Senya. Senya is a little eccentric and a true character, but someone I deeply respected. There was always a tension of sorts between he and I. I took it to be a creative one. In his past he had been trained and served in a rather elite military force so you can imagine, he was not the type of person to mince words. He is also a runner and a Marathoner. Senya could be blunt and was usually brutally honest. He called it the way he saw it and had no qualms about telling you exactly what he thought.
I told him of my plan and he did not laugh at me or ridicule me. Considering I was 42 and seriously over weight, you would think he would have said NO WAY! But he did not.
What he told me was “Only wimps run half marathons! You have 12 months to train and that is plenty of time to get ready for a full marathon.“ I asked if he thought I could do it and he said without delay “Yes, first you need good shoes. You don’t take a step without the right shoes “
He proceeded to tell me exactly where to go and get the shoes and I went out that day so I could take my first “run” that night after work. Since I refused to be called a wimp, I decided that I would train for the Full Marathon. No way I was going to let Senya call me a wimp! Besides, I believed him when he said I could do it and never questioned it.
So the first lessons I learned that apply to anything in life you set out to do:
1) Declare your intention or goal
2) Seek out the advice of others who have gone before you (find your Senya)
3) Listen to their guidance, it will help you avoid their mistakes
4) Be courageous with your goals
5) Before you take the first step, get the right pair of shoes!