If you think you can, you can. Such, a simple concept in theory, but not one often applied well by those who know its’ truth, but today, this will be my mantra.
As I partake in the Athens Classic Marathon today, 2,501 years after the first messenger, Pheidippides first ran the 26.2 mountainous miles to bring news to Athens that the Battle of Marathon had been won. Today, I am running the same course, today I am living history.
Perhaps what I love the most about running is that it takes me back to my origins, my very basics, and the most raw version of myself that I know. Running strips away my anxieties and shatters my fears. With each drop of sweat, comes cleansing, and with cleansing comes freedom. This morning, I am running the origin of the modern marathon, and I am going to finish at the Panathenaic Stadium, the stadium of the 1896 Olympics, the first modern Olympics. It is a race that will reawaken the fundamental basics of why I run, and will give me the opportunity to proactively practice the power of positive thinking. On this course with an eight mile long hill, and 13 miles of total climbing, I will pace at a pace that is challenging but that I know that I can and must do, and I will run a race that is only my race and not that of anyone else.
In the land where modernity was birthed, so too will I.
You might not be running a marathon today, but everyday each one of us has the opportunity to birth a mind of optimism and belief. The can-do attitude isn’t just for running marathon or for penguins turning themselves into aluminum cans, it is for all those who will themselves into living life to the fullest.
What can you do today?