​EARNED RUNS: YOUR “BETTER PERSON”

Fresh 2018 Earned Runs bibs. Taken by PKSenagore December 2017. All rights reserved.

“The Only Fitness Resolution We Need: This New Year’s resolution has nothing to do with losing weight or setting a new PR,” item from MotivRunning.com by Susan Lacke is a great article.
 
It is INSPIRATIONAL on two levels.  
 
Lacke’s writing lifts up the person who may wish to run a race, become an athlete, or greatly improve physical functioning, but who has not been able to overcome current-status inertia and take the first big step toward a fitness goal.  The story she tells about her own journey to become the running enthusiast she is today is amazing. 

I read articles routinely and pass those that seem useful on to others.  There’s usually a little blurb introducing the author, which briefly describes that person’s fitness related accomplishments. The story behind the blurb is not told. I tend to look at these accomplished experts as, well, experts.  It doesn’t occur to me that they may have struggled like I have, or experienced a time when their confidence was so low it was almost non-existent.
 
In this article, Lacke tells her story. How she started out, with almost no aspirations to become a serious runner, who would come to write columns about the sport.  She gives credit for her personal transformation to the friend of a friend, Carlos, who sent her a 5k training plan and skipped the usual joke she was expecting.
 
Thus, the story leads us to the second level of inspiration this article provides. The “cheerleader” level. Lacke describes a situation in which a person announces an ambitious goal to be better in terms of fitness or health, but receives less than encouraging reactions from friends, online acquaintances, and skeptical fitness buffs.  That person likely fails, possibly because no one “wholly believed they could beat the odds”, she says, that statistically predict failure instead of success.
 
In 2018, the columnist challenges those of us who are able to lead the cheering section for others to resolve to be “better people” while we’re trying to be better athletes. To “change the trajectory of someone else’s life” by offering active support to newbie achievers.
 
This article hit me in the heart. Her call to be a booster for others is what Earned Runs was founded to do. To encourage and enable people with timid but real aspirations to take the bold step of working toward a fitness goal. It could be to run a 5K, or walk one. Other challenges might be to swim a mile, perform 20, 30, or 40+ push-ups, burpees, chin-ups etc., or improve mobility and balance.  Earned Runs wants to serve as that better person, who has faith in every would-be athlete and actively proves it by providing supportive materials.
 
I found that a personal racing bib, folded in a pocket, taped to the refrigerator, or tucked inside my planner, can be a silent cheerleader. Especially If I’ve written my goal and tracked my progress on it. Consider trying this.

Regardless, know that Earned Runs believes in and is willing to help you. 
 
RUN & MOVE HAPPY
 
https://www.motivrunning.com/running-life/inspiration/new-years-resolution-need/