If you TRULY Believe, you CAN Truly Do Anything
If you’re connected with me on FB, you’ll see that I recently reposted a little pic of the boys with a sign that said “believe” behind them.
In honor of it, let’s “believe” 2021 will be the best ever.
You might be surprised what a little faith might do to your wishes.
A little over 2 weeks ago, I noticed I ran 534 miles this year (despite never running more than possibly 25 or more a year). It blew me away when I hit 500, but a little thought creeped into my head right after I saw this number.
I quickly converted it over to kilometers out of curiosity and saw it was “up there” in terms of digits. I wondered to myself, “how close would this be to 1000?“
After quickly converting it, I realized I had ~141 km to go to hit 1000! I thought to myself, “that can’t be too much in miles, could it?” Well…
Math Skills Finally Serving Some Use
Quickly using my “9th grade Math Student of the Year” skills, I noticed that it was only about 82 miles’ish. Doing a bit more math, I measured it out to be 11.7 miles a day for 7 runs — I knew I had no more than 7 or 8 opportunities to possibly execute on this crazy idea. The most I ran this past year of “living life to its fullest (and frankly, my entire life!),” was 14 kilometers split into 2 separate runs. This new pace was easily 4 km+ more than that “best day.” And I would have to replicate this incredible feat 7 times in a row!?? Could I do it???
Guess what? I started to “believe.”
Up through that point, I was running between 3 to 6 miles (at most). Frankly, the 6 mile run was an anomaly b/c it was more like 3-5 miles on each of my runs. Honestly, I was content with it, but this new goal seemed potentially within reach.
So, I said “Screw my body. Let’s see what I can do!?”
I couldn’t believe it, but I ran more than I had ever in a single run. You see, that 14 kilometers was (again) broken up into 2 runs. This one straight shot down Marina del Rey had literally set a personal best (pb).
Killing Myself
My body was in excruciating pain, but my mind started to say, “You could do it.”
If I haven’t said it enough, I hated running. No, I detested, despised and literally loathed this activity that kills the joints and right before the runs from this year, I worried about needing possible hip surgery.
However, it was less than the 11.7 miles I had set as a pace I would need to hit. So, the very next day, I ran another 2.36 miles to get close to the pace. My body was telling me to “go f*ck yourself,” but my brain yelled back and said “go f*ck yourself even more!”
So, the day after, I decided to run another 8 miles, but as a result of my schedule that day and a surprise call from a gal I had just recently swiped right with, I only ended up with 6+ miles. 
Noticing that I wasn’t close to the 11.7 miles every other day, I ran another 4.19 miles later that night. In total, I had run over 20+ miles in 3 days. I was really believing I could do it — while dying in agony at home after the longer runs.
I had to rest. So, I took my first full day off in a few days and prepared for the run on the 19th. I was more determined than ever to reach that 11.7 miles goal.
Just do it
At first, the run was the same old pain where it takes about a mile or 2 to start warming up. After I got past the first couple, I started wondering “maybe I could reach the virgin territory?” But for some reason, it was tougher today than it was the past few days. When I got to mile 8, I thought, “I can’t do it. I can’t run this entire length.” So, I walked for a bit. However, I told myself “I MUST do this.” I began running again. For the next 4 miles, I walked, ran, walked and then ran. The last two miles, I ran enough where I would at least attain a pace that didn’t feel like walking. While it was slow, I got the 12.2 miles done! Even though the pace was slower, I felt like I truly did it.
I literally just ran the most I had ever. I destroyed my body while doing so, but it was an accomplishment I’ll never forget.
From there on, it got easy. I didn’t have to actually run the 11.7 miles (~18.8 km). Somehow, I had gotten a tad ahead of myself and ended up only needing to run 8-9 miles (12.8-14.5 kms) every other day to achieve my goal. Maybe my 9th grade math skills were rusty?
A little after a week ad a 1/2 later, I’m at 990 kilometers or only 6.21 miles (~10 km) away from hitting this crazy goal that seemed impossible. After running 12.2 miles once and 8+ miles four times in a row, I felt like this was destined to be achieved! 
Breaking Records
I’ve also run more this month than any of the previous ones by a long shot:
Once this is said and done, it will represent 25+ miles more than the best month I had back in June — the month I had the 14 km (~8.69 miles) run, I believe.
- March: 6.4 miles (over 5 runs at 11’05’)
- April: 59.4 miles (21 runs at 13’27”; note, I spent a lot of time calling, writing, etc. on the runs)
- May: 71.2 miles (19 runs at 13’15”; same note)
- June: 84.9 miles (18 runs at 12’07”; similar issues here)
- July: 30.6 miles (13 runs at 11’39”; getting more focused on the pace)
- August: 61.9 miles (22 runs at 10’20”)
- September: 75.9 miles (29 runs at 10’34”)
- October: 58.1 miles (23 runs at 9’47”)
- November: 60.9 miles (19 runs at 10’41”)
- December: 105.5 miles (20 runs at 9’49”) thus far
In Kilometers:
- March: 10.3 kms (over 5 runs at 6’53’)
- April: 95.7 kms (21 runs at 8’22”; note, I spent a lot of time calling, writing, etc. on the runs)
- May: 114.6 kms (19 runs at 8’14”; same note)
- June: 136.7 kms (18 runs at 7’32”; similar issues here)
- July: 49.3 kms (13 runs at 7’15”; getting more focused on the pace)
- August: 99.6 kms (22 runs at 6’25”)
- September: 122.2 kms (29 runs at 6’34”)
- October: 93.6 kms (23 runs at 6’05”)
- November: 98 kms (19 runs at 6’38”)
- December: 169.8 kms (20 runs at ~6’05”) thus far
2019 Wasn’t Easy
Not sure if I’ve shared this, but 2019 was one of my worst years ever. I couldn’t get myself to continue running after attempting to start about ironically 7 times. My stomach has been a little off over the past 5 years or so where it gets so hungry, it starts to feel like it’s literally eating away at things inside. I probably should get it checked out, but every time I go to the doctor, they say the same thing: let’s run some tests and after we get them back, it’s usually “You’re o.k. Just exercise and eat healthy.” LOL
In December of 2019, I literally thought I had prostate cancer (esp after my homeopathic doctor had said I have “nodules”). The urologist in January said, “Nope. You’re o.k. Just exercise and eat healthy.” After the emasculation, I was relieved (I know — any guy reading these words together must be ROFL).
Shortly before this little episode, I also had thoughts about the last 5 minutes of life. All the thoughts that Seneca had in “How to Die,” or Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” or Paul Kalanithi’s “When Breath Becomes Air” had become so clear that I decided moving forward, I would live every moment I could as if it were my last.
This revelation helped me start WheniLeave.com. This revelation helped me carry out acts at the day job I never thought I would ever do. This newfound “belief” let me truly become stronger than ever.
As a result, it hasn’t been that hard to achieve these 1000 kilometers (that I will have attained here in 2 days).
If I can do it, so can you.
You just need to do one thing:
Believe
Happy 2021 everyone!
It’s been a pleasure sharing my life with you.
p.s. I have one section of this post I’ll come back and share and it will be titled:
Just did it
12/31/20’s update:
- December ended up being 112.8 miles (21 runs at 9’46”)
- or 181.5 kms (21 runs at 6’04”)
