How Do You Handle Challenges?

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about my upcoming marathon (26.2 mile) walk in Honolulu.  Let me be clear – participating in a marathon has NEVER been a goal of mine … I was “hoodwinked” into it to accompany a friend.  My intuition told me that participating in a marathon would not be a “cakewalk”…it is a REAL CHALLENGE!

The training for the marathon was 19 weeks long, and needless to say, each week’s training became increasingly challenging.  Many of my family members and friends kept asking why I decided take such a huge challenge – especially at the tender age of nearly 63.  As the challenge of the training increased week-by-week, I began to question my own decision.

Each week’s training brought a new challenge.  First, I had the wrong shoes – at the end of the eleven mile walk, the balls of my feet were blistered and sore for three days.  Secondly, my feet still burned during my 14 mile walk after buying supposedly the right shoes.  I had no blisters but it was painful.  Thirdly, after the 18 mile walk, I was so sore the two days after the walk that I could barely walk up and down the stairs of my house.

At this point in the training, I began to question whether I was really up to the challenge.  Why should I continue to put myself through such pain and misery each week?  Maybe my family and friends were right – my body was too old to withstand such a beating.   Nevertheless, I kept on going and each time I reached a new goal, the more inspired I became and the better I felt about finishing the race.  I began to BELIEVE I could DO IT.

After a while, 8 and 10 mile walks felt very short and was a “breeze” to do.  Our final long walk in the training was 22 miles.  It took over five hours to finish but at the end I felt pretty good – a little sore, but not bad.  The kicker was we had to complete a total of 38 miles that week and then turn around and walk 14 miles the following Monday.  This is when I faced my biggest challenge – my hip became over-extended from the frequent walks and I had a GIGANTIC problem.  Two weeks before the race, I was literally side-lined with a hip problem (never had this problem before)– could barely walk for nearly ten days!

What would I do?  I HAD to finish the race after all the preparation and training…. My critics began to have a “Field Day,” saying such things as “Are you still going?”  “You can’t possibly go now, you can’t even walk.”   I calmly told them that while my body might not let me participate in the marathon, I had already walked 22 miles and even if I can’t walk in the marathon I am already a winner and will go to the Honolulu Marathon to celebrate with the rest of the winners…

I will be leaving for the marathon in a couple of days and my hip is still not up to par, but I am satisfied that whatever happens, I have already won.

My advice to you is–look at challenges as opportunities to grow and learn, to strengthen yourself, to test yourself and your faith.  Challenges reveal how badly we want to create the dreams in our hearts, and how hard we’re willing to work for them. This is such a blessing.

The biggest challenge is choosing the right attitude. Will you get flustered and angry, or will you get excited and determined? Will you lie down and cry, or will you push through your challenges?  Once we change our attitude about obstacles and challenges, they can actually become fun.  Our competitive human nature rises up and gets ready to win, no matter what.

The final chapter of my marathon story will be revealed in my next blog post … stay tuned to hear the outcome!

Please leave me a comment and share your thoughts about my marathon plight, and share this with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, if you enjoyed this post.  I promise I will connect with you again very soon.

Love and blessings,