you gotta believe

yesterday marquis told me he was in town and asked me to come hear him speak at a school. i know he is a motivational speaker as well as a trainer, and so i went. not knowing anything about the function except time and location.

as i listened to him, i was proud of him. i've known him since the end of june, but i was proud of him. the five weeks i spent training with him changed how i train. intensity. what i do. and it changed how i perform.

when he says "average stops here, what are you going to do" i laughed. when he said "you gotta believe you can do it" i knew i couldn't outrun him.

what i didn't realize until my two races was the impact those words and the training had.

when i was lost with two miles to go in a race, when i should've been done, i didn't walk or cry or have someone come get me. i ran harder after i should've been done. that's because he showed me that i could do more than i thought. and average may have stopped there, but i didn't want to accept average.

when i signed up to run a 5k on a day i had a long training run and i ran 15 miles in the morning and then ran at a hard effort for another 3.2 that night, that is again because he showed me i had more in me than i thought i did. i believed i could finish strong.

i'm looking forward to this race season. i am running hills. doing (attempting) pullups on trees. bear crawls, all sorts of torture. because i know i can do it.

when he got to the end of his talk and there was a (hidden) message and a thank you to me, no one else knew it was for me. no one else even knew i was there. no one else knew who i was. but i knew. and i hope i've been able to do a little for him, for all he did for me. my first trainer helped me get stronger. marquis gave me so much more than a work out.


what kind of encouragement do you need today? do you believe?

one of my favorite verses

Col 1:11 "God will strengthen you with his great power so you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient".

it doesn't say he will remove your troubles. it doesn't say he will give you everything you want. it doesn't say it will be easy. it says he will strengthen you with his power. and be patient.

whatever my troubles are, i rely on his strength, his power, and i don't give up.