A Lesson in Confidence

I don't watch a lo of TV.  The only time I do watch it is if I am at the gym, and it varies day to day as to what I watch.  But today, I learned a lesson from watching TV.

There was a college basketball game on tonight which featured #1 Duke vs. #25 Miami (in Florida).  When I watched the game, it was in the second half and Miami had a surprisingly huge lead of 25 points.  They were dominating Duke.  The announcers were in shock and kept saying how they couldn't believe how the Duke team had given up while the Miami team was full of confidence.  Miami believed they could win, and made it happen.  They weren't intimidated by Duke, or by the legacy of the program.  I'm sure they are still celebrating their victory right now.

Recently, I have been thinking more about competition.  When I line up to start a race, who else is there?  Who will my competition be, besides the clock?  I used to get easily intimidated by others.  For example, on Saturday, the female team that won the relay was a group of athletes out of the Performance store who all ran track or cross country at Division 1 college schools, like Wisconsin.

In the past, I would think that I don't stand a chance against these runners, thinking that because they ran for D1 schools means they are automatically tons faster than me.  However, in the past month I realized that athletes who ran in college, or high school, don't have much on me.  As a matter of fact, I am faster than many of the athletes that ran at the college I went to.  This has given me more confidence as a runner.  And just like the Miami demonstrated tonight, confidence makes a regular athlete capable of the extraordinary.

I don't know what the year will hold for me, but I do know that I have big goals and dreams.  And I fully believe I can achieve them.  I've come incredibly far in my journey as a runner, and only expect it to keep getting better with time.