How To Create Your Own Miracle

The race you want is such a crazy reach it’s going to take a miracle.

Maybe it’s a finish after a couple of DNFs. 

A tough race you couldn’t train for.

Or a challenging course with tight cutoffs.

So you pass it up.

Too many reasons you’re not ready. Next race, next year will be better.

But passing up races because you think you’ll DNF does exactly what you’re trying to avoid - it hurts your self confidence. 

It’s a quit. You’re dropping…before the race even starts.

It says you’re not willing to bet on yourself. You have a chance at finishing but don’t trust yourself to make it work. 

And you won’t be there for yourself if you DNF. You’ll feel worse about yourself.

This is where I could have been a week before Daytona 100, after not finishing the planned distance at my last two races - Javelina 100 and Fall Creek 100. 

Finishing Daytona would take a miracle. I had one week left and hadn’t solved the hip injury from the last four races. In fact, it had gotten worse and I was tempted to pass the race up.

But there was still a slim chance I could finish and taking that chance on myself - even if I DNFed - felt way better than hiding in fear from a DNF.

So I decided to create my own miracle.

I did two simple things.

First, I focused relentlessly on the chance I could finish. No matter how small it was, it was still a chance. Every time doubt crept in, I reminded myself of that and kept the faith.

And second, I did everything possible in my control to make the miracle happen.

I was out of shape because of the injury and one week didn’t give me enough time to change that, so I invested the week off to let the hip relax.

I researched injuries and diagnosed mine as a bad hip flexor strain, to give myself a target.

The most important thing I could control was whatever was hurting my hip flexor, so I went to work on it.

I sought out everything I could to prevent hip flexor strain. I found a million videos on treating it but to finish, I had to do more than stretch it - I had to stop what was causing it.

I gathered all the prevention ideas and immediately put them into practice. For example, I stopped sitting as much during the day. 

And I used running form fixes in everything I did - from standing up out of bed, to work, making dinner, brushing my teeth - everything. I didn’t test the fixes on a run (because, rest) and had no idea if they’d work but I bet they’d be enough and that after a week of everyday practice, I could do them running.

On race morning, I ran the new way from the word ‘go’ and was astonished to be running pain-free. 

I focused hard on making all the fixes happen every single step because doing it right from the start gave me the best shot at finishing. And being out of shape took extra concentration. No looking around. I kept reminding myself it was possible and I was going for it.

Around 20 miles, the new way felt started to feel automatic and I could relax a bit.

And about 24 hours later, what seemed like a miracle only seven short days before, happened - I crossed the finish line.

It worked because I used two strategies - belief and action. Action without belief won’t work and belief without action won’t either. You have to use both.

You can create your own miracle the same way.

If you’re willing to believe it’s possible, even when chances are slim, and take responsibility for making the most of those chances, you don’t have to hope for a miracle.

You can create one.