My Mile Ten Rule For Doing Hard Stuff

I love the movie Wedding Crashers. I watched my DVD (dinosaur speak for movie) so many times it quit working. Now it’s downloaded to my phone, and I just let it run in the background when I’m working around the house to hang out with my hilarious friends, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. In the movie they have their own set of rules for crashing weddings: “Don’t walk away from a crasher in a funny jacket” and “Never leave a crasher behind.” There is humor and truth in these rules about being a good friend. What I’ve learned about rules is they’ve almost always been developed to protect you; behind every rule is the sucker who had to learn it the hard way.

Life Rules

What life rules have you developed as a result of a failure or because you saw it happen to someone else and you don’t want to be that guy? What rules do you have to keep you moving toward a goal?

I would like to share my Mile Ten Rule…

Dam It

For several, consecutive years, prior to growing two large babies inside my body, I would train for and run the Dam To Dam race. It was a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) road race starting at a dam and ending at another dam. There were so many great things about this race, including the training. I created a running group for people who wanted to train together and conquer this feat. We would start training toward the end of February/early March (in Iowa) to be ready for the race the first week of June. Most of us had the primary goal of crossing the finish line, with a few of us looking to hit certain time goals, like make it under two hours.

There are many stories I could share about these experiences, like the time I had to leave part of my clothes in the woods or the guy who ran it barefoot or the time I got engaged at the end. These are all pretty great stories, but the last time I ran it, I left with a new life rule — The Mile Ten Rule.

Hurricane Headwinds

Sometimes you can check off a phase of life and say, “I’ve completed it. That chapter is closed.” I could have said that with Dam To Dam. What did I have to prove? But this was the last time the race would be held, and I knew I had one more in me. I had trained hard and focused on my mile times. I was ready! The gun fired and the last official running of the race started with a thunderstorm resembling a hurricane. I am not exaggerating. We started running across the dam covered in garbage bags with the wind and rain whipping straight into our faces as we pushed forward. It was part misery and part laughing and adventure for the unbelievable nature of what we were attempting. After a mile or so in, the sun came out and turned June in Iowa into a cornfield sauna. Wet plastic was discarded, and we continued with squishy, heavy, wet shoes. I was thinking maybe the barefoot guy had a point.

Mile Ten

At mile ten, I wanted to quit. Everything hurt. I was hot and soggy and had stopped for water. My body was screaming — that’s all, folks! I could have been done. Ten miles is pretty good! What did it matter? I could have walked off the course and gone about my day. But I remembered all the mornings I had gotten up early and put in the mileage, all the excitement I had when I beat my time goals, and I decided ten miles wasn’t enough. I had to make it the full 12.4. So I dug deep, started moving again and finished the race. It felt good to wear the medal and know that I had finished. I had honored my goal, and the Zombie burger I ate tasted that much better, at least initially.

You CAN do it!

Since the race, there have been many times I’ve reminded myself of the Mile Ten Rule — you CAN get past the hard part and finish it. Find a way to pass the finish line and collect the medal. I’ve never regretted it. So if you hit mile ten, remember all the work you’ve put in and how good it will feel to hit your goal. Give yourself a medal for being awesome and notice how good it feels to accomplish your goals.