The Fear of Failure is upon us all the time. For some people, it is a tiny fear WAY back somewhere in the packed attic of their brain. For others, the fear of failure can be strong enough that it prevents them from even starting something.
On the whole spectrum of not fearing any failure, to not starting anything, I tend to lean towards the latter. The fear of not finishing something is large in my life. If I commit to a project and don’t finish it, then I have failed.
I think Homer J. Simpson sums it up best:
Or, at least that is what I used to think.
This public journey of changing my lifestyle and preparing for a Half-Marathon has taught me a valuable lesson. That lesson is this:
“The journey itself teaches more than the finish.”
I just made that up, but it doesn’t make it any less relevant in my life than if I copied it off of a fortune cookie!
At this point in the game, I’m starting to wonder if there is any way I can possibly run 13.1 miles in the same day. Thirteen-point-one CONSECUTIVE miles! That distance still seems HUGE even though the half-marathon is 10 days away! I find it easy right now to motivate myself to continue running and training for the race, but the distance still seems daunting! Using my personal history as a reference tool, I would have by now found an ‘out’ so that I could get out of running the race. Today I know this, I will finish this race, even if I have to walk some of it, or curse some of it, or hobble to the finish line, this is a goal that will be very positively finished on Nov. 3rd. After that? Who knows? Maybe another half, or even a full marathon in 2013.
Mythical 5th Position 
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