Believe in me…cuz I often don’t

I just ran my first 5k without stopping. This was HUGE for me. HUGE. And when I say “just” I mean on Thanksgiving…a few days ago. Imagine my surprise when I found myself in line to sign up for the Bayshore half-marathon that will be held on May 26, 2012. How did this happen, you ask? Why would I make such a leap from finally running 3 miles without stopping to committing to a 13 mile run?

Because no one told me that I couldn’t.

We all have voices in our heads. Voices that do all sorts of things–not all of them positive. An amazing woman outlined it like this: There are 3 main voices in our heads. The Critic. The Coach. The Cheerleader. My personal internal voice gravitates to the critic. This sucks. My goal is to get to the coach (and I’m closer than I’ve ever been) but the critic tends to dominate.

The critic picks EVERYTHING apart (and when I say “everything” I mean EVERYTHING). Nothing is off limits. Nothing is sacred. The critic will take the most benign topic and find fault in it to its core. This totally sucks when it’s your life the critic is holding court in (trust me on this one). My driving, my choice in footwear, my makeup application, the cleanliness of my house, the quality time I spend with my dog, my parenting style, my waistline, my choice in men, and on and on and on and on and on and ONNNNNNNNN. The critic is relentless and harsh. The critic will nitpick and shred anything and everything in its path. The critic will weed out the scent of truth and add details and emotions that may not truly represent. The critic is jealous, angry, and harsh. She sucks.

The coach will try to capture an accurate presentation and find areas for improvement while supporting what was done well. The coach will pull me off the field into a one-on-one huddle, praise me for what I did well, give me something to tweak, swat me on the butt and send me back out into the game. I heart the coach as the coach represents more fact than fiction while giving me direction.

The cheerleader wildly thrashes about on the sideline jumping and cheering with all her might. The cheerleader thinks I can (and should) do anything. The cheerleader is like the honey badger–the cheerleader don’t care–she just chants, “Go Stacey! Go Stacey! You’ve got this!!!” even when I’m clearly getting my butt handed to me by life. Even when the score is them: 70 and me: 0, she’s cheering me on.

The “three voices” is a concept I totally embrace and buy into. This is why you’ll often hear me cheering you on and believing in you–because I know there’s a critic in you telling you that you can’tshouldn’twon’t and you might just need to hear someone tell you that you can. I know that every once in a while, my voice is louder than the critic in your head and I try to help you out when I can. How do I know this? Because it works on me, too.

Back to my original point.

I signed up to run a 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles, if you’re counting) because no one said I couldn’t and a few people that I trust told me I could.

Believe in me…because often I do not.