Yesterday, I found out that I'm #3 on the waitlist for the Mt. Hood 50 miler. I'm so psyched! I'll never forget my 11 year old's reaction to the news. He shrieked in excitement, ran up to me and gave a me a big hug. It was like we had won the lottery. He knows how much I've wanted this. Fingers crossed that COVID cases start declining with the vaccine and that races can safely happen. I know I'm not actually in the race yet, but I can comfortably assume that at least 3 people will opt out before race day in July.
Running 50 miles will be a test of mental toughness. Of course I'll have to physically train for the race, but physical strength will only take me so far. I will need mental strength just to consistently get through all of the workouts these next few months. I think it's time that I finally start carving out time to work on my mental fitness. The last time I intentionally worked on getting myself mentally prepared was right before my first 50K race when I thought about what I could put into my cookie jar.
David Goggins talks about something called the cookie jar. If you can sit down and write about a few times in your life when you struggled with something and overcame that struggle, you can put that into your cookie jar. When times are tough, you can reach into the cookie jar, remember that you had those difficult moments and the triumph of overcoming those challenges and those thoughts should help push you through the current struggle (say mile 40 of a 50 mile race). Having a mental cookie jar is a powerful thing, but it does mean that we need to do hard things. For most of my life, I have lived in comfort and I haven't sought out situations that make me uncomfortable. I finally figured out that you can't grow if you don't experience discomfort. Every time we learn a new skill or push ourselves to a new level, there is discomfort. It's worth it though. Being human means pushing ourselves past our perceived potential. Most of us have no idea what we're capable of because we don't push ourselves to a point of failure. This 50 mile race is just the next big thing on my radar. I might fail and the fear of knowing that I might not finish the race will push me to be all in with the physical and mental training.
So, what's in your cookie jar? Have you experienced any hardships or challenges that you've had to overcome that you can put into your cookie jar? I will spend some time this week thinking about what I can put into my cookie jar. 2020 has given me plenty of material.
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