Barriers

We set our barriers in our minds.

I had serious misgivings while driving over to Greenbelt Park to run the Perimeter Trail. There was 3-5 inches of ice and snow on the ground and I expected the already rough trails to be truly impassible. Yet, we thought we'd try and see; if the trails were impossible, then we could always run the park roads. Instead, a wonderful adventure awaited us. Snow tracks told us that only someone on cross country skis, one person on foot with a dog, and a large deer had preceded us along the trail. We had a great, if laborious, time pushing through the snow and ice, admiring the nearly untouched winter landscape following the trail around the park. What I nearly dismissed as not reasonable became an exploration of the park in winter and an adventure beyond a self-limiting, premature, barrier.

As I accumulate miles and years running, the lesson I've learned that I most treasure is that my mind cannot even conceive the limits that I am capabable of attaining.