Live Up to Your Expectations

If you’re a road or trail runner, you know this fear:

“Is this the day I find the dead body?”

I recently had that moment for real.

Late one Sunday morning, I was driving along a residential street to the trailhead to run and saw a large, crumpled black shape motionless on the sidewalk, with no one around.

I slowed and as I looked over, confirmed that fear. It was a human.

I had a moment to make a choice.

Turn around and go back, or keep going?

Drivers of two cars coming the opposite way stopped in the road but didn’t pull over.

Crap. I had a list of things that had to get done today and was tight on time. I was only running on condition I would be efficient enough to get it all done. This didn’t fit that plan.

Those two other drivers would stop. I’d end up being a useless onlooker, in the way.

And the way the person was curled didn’t seem like a heart attack. There would be drama. It would be messy.

I imagined myself going on about my day. It would be easy. In a week, I wouldn’t remember this.

But - and here’s the point - as many excuses as I had with no one expecting anything from me, driving on wasn’t me.

No one would know…but I would.

It wasn’t who I knew myself to be.

And it wasn’t who I was going to start being.

As complicated as this might get, as many deadlines as I might miss, and as little as I might be able to do, I had to turn around and help.

I couldn’t not.

As I u-turned, I mentally rehearsed my steps as a first responder. I’d renewed my first aid and CPR certification two months ago, so it was fresh in my mind.

Sure enough, the two other drivers - a man and woman - had pulled over but were standing by their cars a good distance away. I asked hopefully if they were medical professionals. No, but the man had called the police.

So, I went over to the body that was thankfully in the process of sitting up. I kneeled down to her eye level and took charge for the ten or so minutes until the police arrived. Somebody had to. She asked, so I stayed with her until they took her home, at her request.

When I got back in the car, I sat for a moment. I knew all along I’d stop because of something stronger than the excuses.

The exact same question I’ve answered 136 times, in every 100-mile race I’ve finished.

“Is this what I expect of myself?”

“Do I take the easy way out that abandons my standards, or do the hard, uncomfortable, messy thing that meets them?”

You can come up with a thousand understandable reasons to drop from a race no one will second-guess.

But you’ll know.

Every race gives you the chance to live up to what you expect of yourself.

Be ready when the moment appears.

If want to be rock solid ready, I’m here to help with that and all the other parts your mind plays in a race.

Like deciding if you’re training enough, planning race strategy, managing negative thinking, building belief in yourself, learning the most from your races…and so much more.

Use this link to set up a free consult call.

You can master the thinking skills that make tough in-the-moment decisions easy.