Tonight I Go To War
The Battle of the Mind and Body…
Tonight I go to war.
At 8 pm, I am taking part in my second annual 4 x 4 x 48 challenge. This means I will run 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours. It will definitely be a physical battle, but it will be an even more difficult mental battle. Tonight I will have to go to war with my mind.
I’ve had a lot of people ask me, “why did you decide to do this? What’s the point? Is it for some charity?”
The answer is no. It’s not for some charity. I chose to do this for selfish reasons. I want to become better. When my body is broken down, I want to know that I have the mental endurance to command it to get up and go. I want to know that the pain I will suffer through will only be temporary. I want to feel my legs suffer. I want to feel the pain, the soreness, the dread that I have to get up and run again. I want to feel that pain because that pain is my reward.
Sure, the next 48 hours might suck. But that’s okay. Life has its challenges. It always will. Some we walk into unknowingly or unwillingly, while others we choose for ourselves. But regardless, life will always present obstacles that we have to face. Nothing will ever be easy. If history has proven anything, it is that there cannot be life without suffering. There must always be a price to pay.
Long ago, I stopped asking myself every morning, “what do you wanna do today?” That question lost its importance to me.
What I ask myself now is, “how can I prepare myself today?” To me, that’s the most important question you can ask. Because if life is going to bring its challenges and the only thing you can ever do is prepare yourself for those challenges. I know that I will not always be safe, but I can always choose to be strong. So each day, I wake up and look for ways to strengthen myself.
So tonight I go to war.
War with my body, war with my mind. But in the end, the pain will dissipate, and when I finish that 48th mile after 48 hours, that victory will be mine forever. I will have prepared myself for harder times to come. Because when it comes down to it, all I’m really doing is running. And that is simple. All that requires is one single step at a time. Life can throw whatever it wants at me because I know that I will be ready when I face the next challenge on the horizon. And I will have the mental and physical endurance to face it one step at a time.
So my motto for the night is…
You can either run your life or your life will run you.
With love,
— Travis
