Serious Running Blog

That’s me.  The face of Integrity.  Integrity is very important to me and the Army helped solidify that.  The two men in this picture with me also embody Integrity.  A week before we were scheduled to deploy one of the soldiers in the picture got drunk one night and did not make it to the bathroom; instead he used the bathroom on the other soldier in the picture’s body armor.  Knowing that if he admitted to doing this he would not deploy, the soldier that used the improper bathroom told his higher command that he, “wasn’t sure” if he did it or not.  In another situation I would not condone “pleading the 5th” (not a right afforded to military personnel) to higher command, but in this situation I believe it was warranted.  The point is, he probably didn’t “wasn’t sure” because he probably was not coherent when he committed this act.  He never flat out said he didn’t do it; that is lying and inexcusable.  The other soldier saw him commit this act on his body armor, but told higher command that he didn’t want to tell them who did it.  He didn’t lie and say he didn’t know who did it, just the truth, he didn’t want to rat out his buddy and had forgiven him.  Both soldiers served with me in my platoon and were great assets to the unit, protecting my life on more than one occasion.  These are great Americans and I thank them for serving with me.  That’s why I enjoyed a celebratory beer with them when we got home!  Rule of thumb, if you ever see a active duty military person who has deployed out where you are, buy them a beer, or an appetizer at the very least.

But this isn’t about the Army, it’s about running, running with Integrity.  The most important part of Integrity to me is to do what you say you are going to do.  I once gave a friend 100 dollars because I said if he made a shot in “beer pong” (essentially throwing ping-pong balls across the table into the opponents’ cups filled with beer) that I would give him 100 dollars and I was serious.  He miraculously made it, I miraculously had 100 dollars in my pocket (I think someone had paid me back for some tickets or something) so I gave it to him.  In my friends defense he did not want to accept the money and even gave me about 5-10 shots to win it back but at that point my depth perception wasn’t perfect.  Depth perception is so overrated.

At any rate, this isn’t about beer drinking stories or depth perception, it’s about running what you say you are going to run.  Before you set out on your run you should always decide on the route and/or distance you want to achieve.  Once on the run you need to stick with that.  No matter how bad you think you feel.  The only exception is if you suffer a major injury, like being hit by a car, otherwise you need to finish the run.  Some days you will feel worse during the run than you thought you would when you started, but that is not an excuse.  Do what you told yourself you were going to do.  You may need to slow it down a bit, maybe stop for some water, but you must finish.  The first time you let yourself “cheat” you will do it again.  It’s a slippery slope.  Hold yourself to a higher standard.  Don’t put it in the hands of the Running Gods, put it in your hands.  You’re like a bear with these huge claws so use them!  Bears don’t run away from anything and neither should you!

Do whatever you say you are going to do.  You’ll feel better about your runs and your life.  Life feels so good.