I did it! On Tuesday, May 13, 2014, I ran one mile on the
treadmill in 6 minutes and 59 seconds. I set the goal of running a 7-minute mile in October 2013 when I began my health coaching course at
the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. My mission: to complete a website and
launch my health coaching practice concurrently with reaching this running milestone.
This goal was impossible, unreachable. I am not a lifelong
runner. I didn’t even start running until I was 31, after the birth of my third
child. Before that, the last time I had run a mile was in 6th
grade. Vividly I remember spending a recess on my second attempt to meet the
grade-level expectation, succeeding, under the encouragement of some
classmates, with a time of 9:36. I didn’t run a mile again for over 20 years,
and that remained my best time until very recently.
I made one unsuccessful attempt as an adult to be a runner, while in law school. I could study and work as an editor on the Law Review 18 hours a day, seven days a week, at the school "where fun comes to die", but I utterly failed in my quest to run one single mile without stopping.Fast forward 10 years: I was a stay-at-home-mom to 3 kids under 5 and the 20-minute trek to the gym never failed to take less than an hour. Then check them into childcare, work out, check them out, nurse my infant, give my toddler a snack, struggle to get them back in the car and a quick 30-minute workout was almost an all-day affair. I needed to be able to tie my shoes, walk out the door, finish in 30 minutes, and get on with my busy day. Under pressure from my friends, all avid runners, I decided to give it another go.
One turn around a quarter-mile track was too far at first. The mantra I replayed, over and over in my head, was “if
you can get through 48 hours of labor with no pain medication, you can run for
30 minutes”. I cajoled my feet to keep moving; I slogged my way through the
slow miles; I enjoyed the freedom and silence of a run, if not the running
itself. I worked my way up to a distance of 10 miles before finding myself
pregnant for the fourth time.
One year later, I began again. It was
only a little easier the second time around. I suffered injuries – chronic hip
and knee pain, joint stiffness, a stress fracture. Some doctors say that
running is too hard on the body, but I read “Born to Run” and I believe
that we are, in fact, perfectly designed to run. I decided never to take health
advice from anyone not obviously healthier than myself.
Runners accept aches and pains as an inevitable side effect of running, but I learned that this conventional wisdom
is simply wrong. If I avoid wheat and sugar before a run, my joints feel great
after, as if I hadn’t run at all. There are foods and supplements that support
running by calming inflammation and strengthening tissues. Mark Hyman’s
prolific writings taught me about metabolic processes and the danger of sugars, and I was
inspired by David Perlmutter’s wisdom about the inflammatory effects of
grains. Food changes EVERYTHING.
I brought yoga to my run. Instead of gritting my teeth and
pushing forth out of sheer determination, I learned to sit back, breathe, and
relax. My favorite meditation guru, Jonathan Foust once told a story
about a trip on which he fell ill, and in this state of misery, he was wise enough to turn to his meditation practice. As he tells the
story, he realized as he practiced that, actually, his pinky finger felt
OK. I learned to focus on what feels good. If you can find an element of joy in
the most uncomfortable of moments, you can work through any challenge.
By October 2013, I could run a single mile
in a respectable nine and a half minutes; I was right back where I was at 10
years old. I read an article about applicants to the state police, who must run a mile
in 7:30. That seemed impossibly fast – are there really enough people that can
achieve this time to staff the entire CT state police? I love a challenge, and
if I want to set the tone for my coaching business and challenge my clients to
achieve the impossible, I ought to pick some crazy-impossible goal time for my
one mile. So I determined to do it in seven minutes. Why not? What is there to lose?
Seven months later, and mission accomplished! I worked hard.
I struggled with setbacks: weeks of too many other commitments, or illnesses,
or simply showing up and finding that I didn’t have it in me to achieve that day's intention. Often I bumped up against the belief that perhaps I just wasn’t
capable of running that fast. In
the end, I did it. More importantly, it
wasn’t that difficult. What seemed impossible seven months ago was,
ultimately, eminently achievable. I am grateful to the many sources of inspiration and wisdom that guided me on my path. Isaac Newton credits his scientific accomplishments to
“standing on the shoulders of giants”, and don’t we all? We rely on the
wisdom, discoveries, and teachings of others to lead us down the path to our
goals.
Feats of impossible proportions, much greater than my simple
one mile run, occur every single day. Part of my inspiration and passion is the
recovery of children from the chronic illnesses that are epidemic in the
current generation. It is heartbreaking to walk into a classroom and watch so very many children struggle. If you listen to the mainstream media and conventional
medical wisdom, things like autism, ADHD, allergies, digestive disorder, and autoimmune
illness are simply genetic and a permanent fixture in our culture; there’s nothing we can do but bandage the symptoms and send families on their way. Beth Lambert has written on the
topic and is currently leading a documentary film project to show the world that the seemingly impossible is possible. Kids can and do
recover from these seeming life sentences every day, and not just a few
inexplicable outliers. The impossible is not only possible, it is imminently achievable.
In my health coaching practice, I work with CEOs, from small
business owners to household executives, who take care of their projects and
their families before themselves, and who feel that there is just not enough of
them to go around. Sound familiar? I help these individuals take a step back to
see the big picture, relax into their work, and optimize their health. We work
together to find ways to nourish body and soul. With a little TLC,
they discover new energy and untapped potential. I am pursuing additional
training and accreditation to learn to work with parents who seek recovery and
healing from chronic illness for their children. I strive to be the Sherpa that guides the way up
the often rocky, less-travelled path to wellness. The impossible peak is within reach, if
you just put one foot in front of the other and trust that eventually, you will
reach it.
What’s your impossible? What do you desire to achieve that
seems just out of reach? Find your inspiration, listen to your giants, take the
first step today. Grasp the possibility!
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