A few runs ago I started to feel pain in my right knee. So naturally the next time I went out for a run I put some heat rub on it and braced myself for the burning that I was going to feel during the 16k stretch. During my run I noticed that everytime I passed by a citizen I would have an urge to pick up my pace as if my knee wasn’t on fire (much like those ads where you see a secretary with her wrists up in flames– that’s actually how it feels) and that life couldn’t be better for me. Why do we always have an urge to not let people see that we are human and we all have flaws every now and then? I’m reading the book “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert right now and many chapters ago Elizabeth Gilbert talked about how we always let our ego get in the way. She couldn’t be more right. Why do we care how others perceive us? And why can’t we just be happy with who we are instead of who we want to be or who we will be in the near future?  If we are constantly building up all of this pressure inside our heads there is only one way all that pressure is going to come out… in my mind it looks much like an 80’s cartoon with a lot of explosives and keywords flashing like “SHABLAMO!”
Running was always my way of relaxing and getting out of pressure. How come all of a sudden I am starting to get worked up about not pushing myself far enough? I know I am– without a doubt, I am. The next day I went out and told myself that this was just going to be a fun, easy run. No pressure. And it was a nice, easy run. (Minus the knee pain that started happening again– I think my shoes have hit their last ends at just over 800km. They had a good life!) It’s a mind game. If you tell yourself that there isn’t any pressure– there won’t be. You’re mind tells your organs what to do- minus the heart. Funny thing that body! So, if you are telling yourself that you aren’t good enough well, chances are you aren’t good enough. If you just let yourself go everything becomes so much easier. Yep, that’s easier said than done. But when you find a way to get past your ego, amazing things can happen. Dr. Seuss said it best: