Excuses….we all have them, every single one of us can come up with a million and one reasons why we “cannot” do something and there are always reasons to give up. But here’s one of my favourite quotes: “Are your excuses more important than your dreams?”
And what is a dream? I have had a quote written on a white board in my studio all week and it reads “A dream is a goal with a deadline.” My dream is the Boston Marathon and the deadline is 3 hours and 18 minutes.  

Yesterday marked one month until this journey will come to an end and I find myself in a funny place. I’m ready for this race, in fact I could probably run it tomorrow, but unfortunately I have another four weeks of training, hard work, focus and dedication before this journey is over. I always find this the hardest time to stay motivated when getting ready for an event and this is when I actually have to force myself to train, because to be honest I am sort of getting tired of it and I am ready to have a balanced life again. This is what my past week looked like:

Last Sunday I was out the door at 6am for a 33km run and I spent Monday absolutely exhausted and all I could do was drag myself to physiotherapy to have my amazing physiotherapist undo all I did to myself the day before. Tuesday was a two hour massage followed by forcing myself to do a recovery run of 5km then teach my spin class. Wednesday I was starting to feel a bit better but I had a visit with a friend the night before that went way too late and involved one too many glasses of wine so another day without a run, just a spin class. I was actually quite upset with myself on Wednesday for allowing myself to be so irresponsible and stay up so late drinking wine as being this close to race day I cannot afford to lose a single day of training.  Thursday I got out for a long, hard 15km tempo run and Friday I did a few 1 mile intervals at my race pace. I was in bed and sound asleep by 10pm Friday night and Saturday morning I ran a half marathon, which I arrived at an hour early as I had to run 10km before the race even started. Trust me, I had every single excuse to try and convince myself to skip my workouts but I know what I am trying to accomplish and I am not about to show up to the Boston Marathon underprepared so with that in mind I did the best I could each day.

I want to share a story with you.  A few years ago Vancouver hosted the ITU World Championships (these are the Triathlon World Championships) in the month of June.  hose of you who are from Vancouver know that June here is terrible and frequently receives the nickname “Junuary”. This year it was no exception; it was absolutely freezing and here were thousands of athletes, pros and age groupers, about to complete a race that started with a chilly 1 mile swim in the Pacific Ocean.  Hundreds of these athletes became so hypothermic in the swim that they had to pull themselves out of the race.  But what inspired me the most while watching this competition was the category of athletes called AWAD (athletes with a disability). Their disabilities ranged from being visually impaired, paralyzed, amputations (both single, double, lower body and upper body) just to name a few.  I lived right by the start line so when it was their time to race I bundled myself up, grabbed a coffee and was on the beach to watch them start their swim at 7am.  I have never been so inspired in my life. Here were these amazing athletes about to attempt a feat that most able bodied people would not even consider and had every single excuse to stop.

I am not special; I am a single, 30 year old woman who tries each day to do her best. By no means am I about to attempt something that has never been done before; in fact this year is the 116th Boston Marathon.  will probably have at least 10,000 people finish this race ahead of me, some older than me, some younger.  Some will be mothers, some will be fathers and some will even be grandparents.  Some will be doing this race for their first time, some for their 20th.  Some will be injured or have battled back from injury but all will share one thing – in one way or another each person who crosses the finish line has had to make sacrifices to get there. Each competitor has had their own battle with excuses and their own journey to the start line and each competitor will have a different story to share once they cross that finish line.

One of my clients said to me the other week that one thing she has learned since training with me at my studio is that fitness looks different on everybody. She may never have the dream, or the desire, to ever run the Boston Marathon but there is something out there that is to her what the Boston Marathon is to me. And that is the same for all of us. So, I leave you with this thought – what is your Boston Marathon and what are you willing to do to get there? Is it getting off a specific medication? Is it improving your health so that you can keep up with your children? Is it trying to run your first 10km race? Is it losing your baby weight or is it something more?  What is your dream? And when you achieve that dream what is next?

Attached - Sophia Bush at the gym last week.