What started as a monthly email to family and friends to motivate them to be part of the 2014 Detroit Marathon has led me to write a blog. I guess my “blogging” days started before I knew what a blog was, maybe before they existed. In 2004 I traveled around the world and sent regular emails to family and friends sharing my journey and bringing them along virtually. As I was traveling alone it was therapeutic to write and made me feel as though everyone was there with me.

So 11 years later I am going to try my hand at real blogging…

A couple of weeks ago I was at a cottage and I did a 2km swim with a friend. She had never swum that far before. In fact her longest distance up until that point was 1km. It wasn’t predetermined how far we were going to swim, we were just going. So we had swum about 700 meters and I asked her if she wanted to go further before we turned around. She hesitated. I told her I would tow her back if she needed me to. She agreed to continue and she ROCKED it! No towing necessary! When she finished she said “I’ve never swum that far before. I had no idea that I could do that”.  She had a HUGE smile on her face. I was so proud and excited for her. What an amazing feeling to complete something that you didn’t believe that you could.

This is a problem that most of us have. We get comfortable swimming 1km or running 5kms and we think that is all that we are capable of. We are in our comfort zone and we stay there.

So here I am to push you out a little. And it just has to be a little. Don’t jump from running 5K to attempting a marathon just run an extra km or an extra minute or just run to one more telephone pole, just give a little more than you did yesterday. I will “tow you back” if you need me to… but I know that you can do it!