Blog Update from Running Ambassador Chris Stuchko
February 4 is a date that will stick in my mind for a while.
As a long-suffering Philadelphia Eagles fan, it is a day that will be forever etched in my sports mind as the underdog team that no one liked overcame injuries, doubt, and an all-time great player and performance, to win its first Super Bowl in team history with a 41-33 victory over the New England Patriots.
But you aren’t here to read about my love affair with a team I grew up rooting for.
You are here for running inspiration, motivation, and stories as you prepare for the 2018 St. Luke’s Half Marathon. So here is another reason that February 4 lingers in my mind.
It is a day that running kicked my butt.
As I mentioned in my last post, I was planning on running the Lehigh Valley Road Runner’s Superbowl Tailgate Trot 10K on the morning of the big game. It is a race I had run three times (2013, 2014, and 2017) with usually strong results. I had lowered my time in each race and was hoping for the same again in 2018.
But I got slower.
A lot slower.
Four minutes slower than the previous year.
The slowest time I had ever run in that race. And doubt and anger crept into my head.
People I knew that ran on that day put up great times and I was happy for them, but inside I stewed over my results. I knew I was putting in the work and time on the road, but just wasn’t seeing the results that I thought I could get. My training suffered a bit during this time of doubt.
I kept running because I wanted to make sure I reached my personal goal of going 100 miles per month (29 straight months by the end of February) but I didn’t use the Bart Yasso training plan as I intended. My runs were a bit slower than I would have liked. Then, to top it all off, my family’s treadmill, my preferred way to get speed work, stopped working.
Thankfully February is the shortest month, so I can put it behind me and get refocused and energized to meet my personal goals moving forward.
It is now almost a month after the Super Bowl victory and even thinking about the win puts a smile on my face. But it is a message from Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, Nick Foles, that has the potential for the biggest impact in my running life, considering what a rocky February I had.
Foles, a quarterback who has bounced between starter and backup for his career and was only playing because of an injury earlier in the season to star Carson Wentz said after the big win, “Failure is a part of life. It’s a part of building character and growing. Without failure, who would you be? I wouldn’t be up here if I hadn’t fallen thousands of times, made mistakes. We all are human, we all have weaknesses, and I think throughout this, just being able to share that and be transparent—I know when I listen to people speak and they share their weaknesses, I’m listening.”
One of the best parts about running is being able to put your shoes on every day and trying to be better than the previous run. I know that’s what I am striving for going into March and I hope that’s what all of you out there are doing as we get closer to race day.
Good luck and keep getting out there!