A Trying Time

Posted on March 23, 2012. Filed under: Running | Tags: #running, challenge, Edison, fitness, goals, half marathon, health, marathon, morethanrunning, running, self discipline, sprints |

I once read that it took Thomas Edison 10,000 attempts to make the light bulb before he finally got it right. 10,000. Can you imagine?

If you are near a mirror, take a look at your eyebrows. I’ll wait.

Can you count the number of hairs in just one? Seems like too many to count, at least in one sitting, doesn’t it? There are about 450. Edison failed more than 22 times that number. Nevertheless, he didn’t give up.

Think you could try—and fail—at something more times than you really want to count?

I thought about this the other day when my alarm went off way before dawn on sprint day. Now sprints, I just love sprints. Really I do. But I haven’t yet reached my goal speed. I’ve tried. And failed. And tried again. Once a week, for months. Sometimes I think that instead of trying yet again, I should revise my goal, make it easier.

So when my eyes shot open (the alarm volume is set to fear-raising) and I remembered that it was sprint day, my stomach was not pleased. It turned back over on its own. Geez, I thought, it’s so early and I’m so tired and it’s going to be so hard. Do I really even want to try?

But when I flicked on my lamp I remembered Edison and his 10,000 attempts. Not failures, he said, only 10,000 ways that didn’t work. I rolled myself and my stomach out of bed.

Edison was a pretty smart man and maybe one of the hardest working men in history. As I climbed on the treadmill that morning, I thought about something else he said: “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

And so I ran.