It's been a long past two weeks. With so many ceremony rehearsals in the morning we haven't had PT (physical training) in about two weeks straight which is very unusual when you work out EVERY week day morning whether it's a run day or muscle failure day. Because this past weekend was a four-day weekend due to the holiday I refused to feel like a bum. I built up some self discipline and decided to go on a 2-mile run around the post just to see what my time was. Because we have to go everywhere with another person I asked one of my battles did he want to run and he said "sure". Now I'm not the fastest person in my platoon but I'm by far not the slowest so the guy I decided to run with was a couple minutes slower than me. Granted I hadn't ran in at least two weeks I tried to pace myself during this run. After about half a mile in I slowly saw myself pulling away from my battle. I could tell it had been a while because my breathing was terribly off. It was to the point my chest was not getting enough oxygen and I would have to take a deep breath every now & then. I refused to stop. I refused to quit.
Tracking my pace on my phone with the Nike+ Running app (add me Isaac Fitch) I saw myself going faster than I had ever ran before. It encouraged me to keep going but I just didn't really have it in me. One thing about me and my mind is that if I get the SLIGHTEST thought of quitting it will corrupt my mind and before I know it I'm walking instead of running. I was almost at that stage. It's mind over matter they say. Well I put my shoes over mind! Sounds ridiculous huh. My running shoes are lace-less Nikes. Across the top of them is a Velcro strap that replaced the laces. In HUGE, BOLD letters reads on the left foot "JUST" and on the right "DO IT." That's all the motivation I needed.
Brief history: Nike is a client of the famous marketing agency Wieden+Kennedy. It was Dan Wieden who was reading a newspaper article one morning regarding the death penalty of two convicted murders in the town. It was documented that before executing the actions of the death penalty for one of the murders that they asked him did he have any last words. The convicted killer answers with "let's do it". Dan Wieden loved the phrase but didn't want to credit the killer with his new found slogan so he simply changed "let's" to "just" coining it his.
When I looked down at my sneakers and read "Just Do It" all pain, doubt and pity for myself went out the window. I previously ran a 14:24, this time I ran 13:42, trimming my time drastically! It said in 3 words that everything I was feeling wasn't going to last forever. It said that everything would be worth it in the end. It gave me hope. It gave me strength. It was the whisper in my ear I needed to go on. It reminded me of my younger years when I would complain to my mom about all the homework I had. "Just Do It". It threw out my hesitation of joining the army as my next step in life. "Just Do It". Erased fear out of my heart when I wanted to walk to the alter to give my life to Christ. "Just Do It". There is a lot of people in this world right now, and you may be one of them, that is waiting on a sign to move on... to take that leap and do something great... to make that investment...start that business! Dan Wieden already told you what to do, JUST DO IT!