Running: Actually, yes you can

I’ve got that half marathon coming up in a few weeks, which means I’m running a grody number of miles more often than not. So, if you’re a person who has in person conversations with me, we might have one like this:  I tell you that I ran 11 miles on Saturday and you’re all “Crazy Town!”

And then you invariably say “I could never do that.  Not even if <scary animal/menacing chaser> was chasing me.”

And I will try to convince you that you could do it.  You deny and self-deprecate.

But seriously, you can.  It’s actually not really that special at all.

Or, ok… it is special.  I’d wager that fewer than 50% of adults can actually jog a mile.  But not because they’re missing legs or because they have a disordered phobia of moving quickly by foot.  It’s just because they haven’t properly tried.  With gusto.
So, it’s special.  By default.

But it doesn’t have to be.  If you have a functional body, you can run.  Maybe not fast, or far, at first.  But you can.

You can you can you can.

You can run 10 miles, if you want to.  It was unthinkable to me, once upon a time.  Turns out, I wasn’t being very imaginative.

You can you can you can.

You can run for 60 seconds.  They might be some highly uncomfortable seconds.  But uncomfortable doesn’t mean you can’t.

You can you can you can.

You can cross a finish line.  And cry because you did it.  I know you can, because I did it.  As clichéd as it is to say, I’m saying it anyway.  If I can do it, you can do it.

I couldn’t do it, and then I could.

I can.

You can you can you can.