When you feel like giving up

You can do this

I’ll never forget one of the first group runs I went on when I trained for my first marathon.

It was a Sunday morning in late September, as the sun was just coming up over the horizon. It was a little chilly — but not yet truly cold, which our group runs would get as we got deeper and deeper into our training calendar.

One of our running coaches, a man of about fifty who accompanied our group on every weekend long run, stood up in front of about twenty or so novice runners and greeted us with a grin: “Who’s ready to go?”

A friend of mine, then in her mid-twenties like me, replied.

“You mean… back to bed?!”

We all laughed, because the same thought was running through all our minds: why, again, did we agree to do this? Whose idea was it to get up at oh-God-o’clock on a weekend morning — a time when we all should be nursing our hangovers! — to go out and run?

What’s funny is, for me anyway, after all these years that feeling still hasn’t gone away. Every time I get out there, especially if it’s for a weekend long run, there’s a little voice in the back of my head saying, “pssst… you could just bag the whole thing, you know? C’mon, let’s go back home, curl up on the sofa and have another cup of coffee.”

I would love nothing more than to be able to tell you I’m like the runners I see on Instagram, who, when I see them scroll by in my feed, appear to run at speeds and mileage numbers I can only dream about. (Especially as a person with young kids, a job, and everything that goes with both of those.)

But alas, I’m human. (Surprise!)

The reason I share this with you is so you’ll know: I experience moments of low (or no) motivation too, moments of doubt, moments when I think I can’t do it. That all the responsibilities I have in my life are too much.

But then I tell myself, look back on how far we’ve already come. That you’ve felt these feelings before (and you’ll surely feel them again), and come through them on the other side. That you can find the energy to keep going. It’s there, right where it always has been.

How has your motivation been, especially during a summer when we’ve experienced such record-breaking heat? How have you approached it? I’d love to hear more — as always, keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going.

Your friend,

— Terrell

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Our training miles for this week

How did last weekend’s long run go? (And yes, it wasn’t all that long at just 4 miles. But we’ll add another mile this weekend, when we’ll almost run half-way to the half marathon distance. Slowly but surely, we’re getting there.)

Here are our miles for the week ahead:

• Thursday, July 25 — 4 miles

• Saturday, July 27 — 5 miles

• Sunday, July 28 — 3 miles

• Tuesday, July 30 — 4 miles

Feel free to reach out with any questions (as always!) and keep in touch 👍 — Terrell