"When you argue for your limitations, all you get are your limitations."

I want to give credit for that little quote but I can't find the author of it anywhere. I read it on the internet over the weekend and there is something there that rings true.

I think many of us are sometimes guilty of underestimating our own abilities. I confess that I have often dreamt big but expected little. I have wanted more but have been able to convince myself that this was the best I was going to achieve.

Ever get asked "how did you do?" in a particular race and respond with everything that went wrong? Ever been asked "how do you think you'll do in x race?" and said "oh, not good... training was bad, I have a bad leg, etc."?

Watch the athletes who throw out those tired cliches about "taking it one day at a time" and such. Nobody wants to set the expectation level too high. Now, I have a problem with bragging, "I'm going to leave everybody in my dust", especially if they can't back it up. However, certainly in a competition, it is important to give credit where credit is due... Especially to yourself. And to expect the best and put a swagger into your step. And accept nothing less.

If you set out on a training plan for something, be that an Ironman, a marathon, a hockey season, I think you have to believe at the start that you can and will achieve all the goals you set. If not, then what motivates you to do those little things to get ready to achieve that result? I know that I could not have qualified for the Boston marathon had I not believed that I would. When I posted my 3:17 marathon in Vancouver, I believed in my heart of hearts after that that I would qualify for Boston. In fact, I trained from June through October with that unwavering belief. And, low and behold, not only did I qualify but I qualified with time for a coffee and a muffin (3 hrs 00 minutes, 30 seconds).

But I have had other races where I set out my training thinking "well, I don't know... I could get injured, I could have a setback, I might have a bad race, etc." I said "I'm just going to get in my runs and see what happens... I've come up short lately so I don't want to set myself up for a bad race... etc"... What good comes out of that? Setting low expectations and a low ceiling in January for a race in August that you can, pretty much, already achieve, is not inspiring...

Here's a comment relating to nature... When a lion is hunting in a herd of gazelles, does it doubt its ability to catch one? Not at all... Does it always catch one? Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes it comes easy. But I'll bet that most of the time the lion doesn't go hungry. The only thing that does not change is that the lion knows it has to keep hunting or it will starve. And the lion does not doubt whether it will catch a gazelle when it breaks into a sprint.

Competition has to be such that you firmly and wholeheartedly believe in your ability to achieve the goal you set for yourself... And, what I mean by that is the "challenging" goal. Could you get hurt along the way and have to change your plans? You know it's possible. But it hasn't happened yet, and there is no point in planning for a setback before the setback manifests itself.

Training for the Ironman is a hunt in and of itself. It takes preparation, dedication and commitment. Doing the little things every day to aid you in realizing the dream on race day. That also means believing in your heart of hearts that what you are doing will lead to a great result.

And never, ever sell yourself short. We are capable of far more than we ever realize.

This will be MY interpretation of the quote, which is always open for debate.

Now go out there and run!