When struggles arise, fight harder.

When you fall, get back up and stand tall.

When it gets painful, endure it.

When it seems far, focus on your goal.

Your spirit, and your faith will always guide you if you let it show you the way.

If you wait long enough, your day will come.

I am thankful to be a runner. My greatest of all praise goes to my giver of life, for giving me a talent and spirit that stuck with me and helped me become stronger and endure all those days that seemed longer than thousands of miles in a desert. Thanks for my friends who have been in every step to support me in blisters, cramps and in injury.

I thought I chose to be a runner, but running chose me, today I am who I am because of y’all believed in me, carried me, motivated and inspired me.Running saved my life. Running gave me a life. Running gave me most wonderful friends from all corners of earth. Running gives me peace. Running is how I hear God when he speaks to me through the wind in my face. Running used to be my provider, now it’s my joy. Running is my teacher of life. Running is every reason I am where I am, every hope in my heart, and every dream I’ve ever had, and no matter what happens in my future battles, everyday that I get to run is and will always be the greatest day of my life!

I have faced and endured many miseries in my life, but my greatest inspiration is not found in words but in the mirror, when I’m troubled with people or things in my life I don’t run into people or shout to the world and call for help because no one will understand me, the person who can hear me and understand me stands no further than the person I see in the mirror, when I look into the mirror no matter how deep, all I see is just me, I don’t see my past, or the problems I’ve faced, I don’t see my enemies, I don’t see my problems, I don’t see those who discourage me, I don’t see pain, I don’t see a loser, I don’t see defeat, I don’t see my failures, I don’t see anything but me, I see a reflection of me silently telling me to be me and never be someone else, or be changed by the things of this life, my reflection tells me you look good and your heart looks not young not old but better and stronger, it is in the mirror I find glorious pieces of wisdom, it is in the mirror I see I can become a champion in my realm that defines me and in life.

Then I get back to my room and drop down gently to my knees not to pray but to meditate. Man I love those moments of solitude, separating from the world. Apart from the daily life, apart from expectations and disappointments, a moment to find myself, a moment to find virtue and strength within me, tell myself – today I can face myself, I have the courage to look at who truly I’m, to allow myself to be humble, while taking a deep gentle breath reliving the pressure in my shoulders and make myself light so I may go further in life, all the worries, the anger, the pain and discouragement I let it all go completely untill nothing a bit is left in the corners of my heart and mind, and I fill myself with love and light like a powerful flame, I create a new personality like a joyful warrior, I fit it in according to my own ideas, apart from all the life expectation and ideas, for this is my own choice, my own creation, slowly in the depth of my heart, I build a whole new personality exactly as I want to be, where I’m no longer afraid nor broken, I have confidence, I have peace, this peace is the basis of my starting point, peace of mind, emotional peace, peace with how I see my world, and deep, deep silence, I think of it and I experience it with my body and soul, everything within and around me becomes so still like a chameleon in its hiding, so calm that no thunder can cause my heart to skip a beat, I’m so peaceful, into this peace I bring love, warmth and harmony, free from any impurity, warm deep flow of love pure and real, in this peace love emerges, within this love there’s also abundant strength, the strength to be who I want to be and to share it with others. Peace combined with love, combined with power brings out a warrior of life in me. With this peace I add knowledge, insight and realisation, and the wisdom to be and to act, to take part or to withdraw on the battles that gods are meant to fight, finally this creation brings me the creation I truly want in my life, power and love, clarity and peace, patience and humbleness, courage and perseverance, lightness and wisdom, and most of all happiness and respect, with this happiness in me I’m convinced I own a piece of heaven, with this state of mind I’m ready to face life to my last breath.

But even with this state of mind, you can’t stop the troubles from welcoming itself into your life, there is day You will hurt. There will be ugly days that You will be hurt. Your pride will be wounded. Your feelings will be burned. You will have days when the holes on the wall start to look like appealing places to hide. You will suffer the pain of defeat. You will know the torture of failure. You will feel all that and perhaps much more, but you will endure long enough to win if you choose to. It’s never been about things, or people. The same sequence of events can happen to 10 different people with 10 different outcomes. Why? Because life is about choices, and it starts and ends with the face in the mirror. all I can tell you is things can become different if you choose to see them differently.

I hear people filled with excuses everyday why they skipped their workout, some say I was up late, My legs hurt, I feel sore, It’s too cold, It’s too early to go for a run, I don’t know how to run alone, I’m thinking of starting my workout tomorrow, My watch broke. To tell you the truth, there’s no one who is stopping you from doing what you want to do but yourself, reasons like these is the reason you hear runners complain about their results after a race, some sleep late, and they end having a bad workout next day and then mask it with a blame of excuses. The gym is always open, the road awaits you even in dark, your shoes are always ready to embrace your feet and run over those miles, when you don’t do the right thing in training, it means you’re training for defeat, you’re training to lose, to be disappointed. Some are afraid of pushing themselves, all they day is the same old program of doing long runs after long runs in easy pace, even at the track they do the intervals in easy pace, seriously? and you are talking about you want to improve? may god have mercy on your soul as you live that life champions call it a shame. Push yourself to get better results, sacrifice your comfort to get better results, be not afraid and you will get better results.. stop the excuse and start executing your workout by the throat, grab it by the balls if you have to, just do everything that you do in life like your life depends on it.

I hate excuses. There’s no room or time for that. Look hard enough and we can find reasons to justify every instance of incompetence, but what good will that ever do? People love to take everything for granted, except for responsibility. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve screwed up plenty of times, but never twice for the same reason. See, there you go. I just took responsibility. We all love ownership, don’t we? Cars, houses, clothes…. Own up to the mistakes too while you are at it.