Lead with the Mind and the Body will Follow

Today I went running on my favorite trails at Raccoon Creek State Park. I wanted to run more then the 9.5 miles of the Eastern Loop but didn't want to run the whole loop of 20 miles. I came up with the idea to run the Eastern Loop and add a loop of the Lake Trail to it for a distance of 13.5 miles. I like the Eastern Loop because it has the steepest climbs and downhills of the entire loop. Add the Lake Trail Loop and you increase the climbs by three. A great workout.

While running I saw a Red Tail Hawk and a couple of Pileated Woodpeckers. These woodpeckers are my favorite of the woodpeckers and it is always a thrill to see one. They are very shy and hard to get close to although you can hear them pecking for long distances. These two were across the lake but were easy to spot because of their size.

I have often been asked what do I think about when I'm running alone for long distances. To be honest I usually don't think of any thing but where to place my next step or should I run the upcoming hill, walk-run, or just walk the entire hill. Well this time out of nowhere I came up with a motto for ultrarunning. I'm not a very poetic person so I don't know if I had heard this somewhere and had just suppressed it until now, or if I had actually made it up. My legs were pretty well tired and I was coming up to a hill, when all of sudden this though came to my mind: "Lead with the mind and the body will follow." This is cool stuff because that is what it takes when running long distances. It is not so much the body that keeps you going, it is the mind. It is the mind that keeps you going when your body is begging to stop.