So are you a patient person? Yeah, me neither.

Looking at the ocean makes me still and patient. Which is why I need a beach house!

I am so inpatient, in fact, that I once took a personality quiz for work and one of the areas for improvement it gave me was patience even noting (direct quote) “sometimes, even technology does not work quickly enough for you.”

Well that’s stupid. Technology doesn’t work quickly enough for ANYBODY, but I get their point. Duly noted. I want what I want and I want it NOW, please.

This has proven to be a problem in many areas of my life, most notably for the purposes of this post, in my running. When you add this character flaw to my lack of genetic running giftedness, it equals the proverbial prescription for disaster.

I want to be different. I picked up the book Chi Marathon at the Half Price Books recently (btw, I absolutely love that store) and was instantly reminded of the key principals that I studied when I read Chi Running many years ago. Patience is a key principal of Chi running and it’s slow and patient approach is what first drew me into distance running.

The problem is, being patient TAKES SO FREAKING LONG.

But be that as it may, I’m committed so I am ever so slowly building my base for my marathon training. Last week’s long run? 6 miles. This week? (wait for it) 7 miles. Yup. We’re going up in mileage one solid, painstaking mile at a time.

I am going to keep reminding myself that Rome wasn’t built in a day, a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, and a stitch in time saves nine. I’m sure I could come up with more but I hate to repeat myself over and over and be redundant;).

So how about you? Are you being patient with your body? Are you listening to the aches and pains and slowing down and adjusting as needed? And what about in your life? Are you being patient with yourself and with those around you? Because change and growth takes time. A lot of time. Someone said once that if you look at the life of Jesus he always had a sense of urgency but he was never in a hurry. There’s a great deal of truth there and I’m working really hard to do just that. In my running and in my life.

And slow and steady wins the race. (sorry, I had one more in me).

Happy running.