Goal Accomplished
I ran my first marathon on October 3, 2004 at the age of 43. I’d been a casual runner my whole life, but always thought that running a marathon was something “other” people did, and certainly not something an old fart like me could even consider. In 2003 I was working at North Dakota State University when a colleague of mine, Joe Mike Jones, mentioned in casual conversation that he had run two marathons when he was in his 40’s. I knew then that if Joe Mike could do it, so could I.
As I learned how to train for a marathon, I discovered the biggest barriers to accomplishing this goal were between my ears. It’s amazing what your body can do once your mind gets with the program. I learned a lot about how to train from a good book by Hal Higdon, but I learned the most from two very gracious women that let me crash their party and train with them. They taught me much of what I know today about how to prepare for a marathon.
I really enjoyed that first marathon, so much so that I set a goal to run 10 marathons before I turned 50. I pursued my goal with determination and ran my 7th marathon in May 2007 and my 8th marathon in June of 2007, only two weeks apart. That summer I was training for marathons 9 and 10 when the wheels feel off my bus.
For the next three years, I struggled to run even 5 miles, never fully recovering from the effects of my injury. It was very discouraging, but I never gave up, never quit, never lost hope. Even though my body kept telling me “game over,” I always believed that I would eventually find a way to recover and get back on track.
I ran my 9th marathon on December 4, 2011 and just completed my 10th on April 29, 2012. I’m already 50 now, so technically I did not accomplish my goal, but that’s not the story I’m telling myself.
My 10th marathon was The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, and it was an extremely well organized and very moving event. Race day was warm, humid, and rainy – very challenging for a heavy runner like me – so I was totally wasted by mile 20. But as I struggled through those last 6.2 miles of the race I reflected on how thankful I was to be alive and healthy, and I was equally thankful that I was able to participate in a tribute to the 168 innocent people that lost their lives to domestic terrorism in my home state of Oklahoma on April 19, 1995.
It took me 7 years to accomplish that goal. My next goal is to stay healthy and continue running at least one marathon a year until I am selected via the lottery to run in the NYC Marathon (I don’t see myself ever qualifying for the Boston Marathon). I did not get selected this year, but hopefully sometime in the next few years I will get selected and have a chance to accomplish this new goal.
In June, I’ll start training for The Biz Johnson Marathon in October 2012 .
What’s your goal accomplishment story? Have you struggled through difficult circumstances to achieve a goal that really mattered to you? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!
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About the Author: Bret L. Simmons
Welcome to my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section of my posts. I publish all constructive, non-anonymous comments. 
Bret,
Congratulations, that is a tough one to achieve, and I will admit that though in younger days I was pro sports, now the thing between my years gives me various reasons for not being so. Thanks for inspiring.
And a couple of years back I decided to learn to write well. An attribute that I had focused on previously. Can’t say I have achieved it, written communication is a learning process. But some progress has been made, my blog will nearly have 100,000 views by next month.
I agree with you, grit and determination pay off when one learns from ones failures, and continues to grow.
Sonia
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
May 6th, 2012 at 10:04 am
Welcome, Sonia. You make a good point that it’s important to focus on something, so have some worthy goal worth striving for. Congratulations on the blog progress! Thanks for sharing, Bret
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Respect. I can’t imagine ever doing a marathon. Mind you, I’m not really a runner. I do my fair share of roadwork as an efficient and effective form of cardio and can get several solid miles. But a marathon? At our age? Woof.
I don’t know if you ever saw my piece on the ‘Death of Dreams’ (http://brucelynnblog.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/the-death-of-dreams), but it delves into a similar set of reflections about personal aspirations.
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
May 6th, 2012 at 10:05 am
Bruce, you are a man of much talent, and I’m sure you could accomplish anything you put your mind to. Do love the blog post and hope folks will find your comment, click on the link and read what you have to say. Thanks for sharing! Bret
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For me, a marathon would be impossible with my past injuries and current health issues, and I’m only 39. Big kudos to you for being able to achieve this goal!
For me, my goal was to finish my bachelor’s degree. I know this may not seem like much to some people, but for the circumstances I faced, it’s a big deal. At 16, I went to live at Camp Tracey Children’s home, where I would stay until 2 months before my 18th birthday when they told my father and step-mother I had to go home. Things were really bad between my step-mother and I, and she didn’t want me around. When I tried during my senior year of high school to get into college, she told me she would not allow me to have the information required to complete my financial aid request. I was devastated.
A month after I came home, my mother moved a thousand miles away. Once again I was alone. I knew I had to find a way to get my degree and get away from the situation, so I tried to go in the Air Force, since I’d been recruited in high school for an intelligence position after taking the ASVAB. It took months to find out they wouldn’t accept me because of a sporadic skin condition.
While I was waiting for that decision, I met my ex-husband, and later moved with him 300 hundred miles from everything I’d ever known. We lost our first child when I was 7-1/2 months pregnant, then 4 months later I got pregnant with my son, who is now 19. I tried then to at least get started on my degree, but with the problems with the first pregnancy, he wouldn’t hear of it. When our son was 9 months old, I spent two semesters going to school part-time, which was all my ex-husband would even discuss, saying we couldn’t afford the $200 or so per class at the local community college, even though his new business was flourishing. However, his health was another matter.
Knowing he was going to need surgery for a hiatal hernia, he wanted me to go to work so we would have insurance, and he wouldn’t hear of me going to school too. When his mom offered to help with the baby so I could, he exploded, saying he would not pay for me to go to school. The only thing is I can figure is it had to do with his insecurity and fear that I wouldn’t need him or I would make more money than he did.
Fast forward to May 2006. I’m 6 months removed from my divorce when I meet Dr. Mario Eden, a chemical engineering professor at Auburn University. We started dating, and when I told him about wanting to go to college, and the obstacles that had been in my way, he told me he thought I should go back to school and finish it. I thought I was too old to start college, and life was busy at that time, so I put it on a shelf, even though he mentioned it every time school came up.
My son, who had lived with his dad most of the time since our divorce, came to live with us in October 2007. I’d moved to Auburn with Mario 6 months earlier and had a horrible time finding a job in a college town without a degree. Life was more settled by then, and I decided to go for it. I had 17 years of accounting experience by then, so where I went wasn’t as important as the accomplishment. I settled on University of Phoenix, knowing if I changed jobs before I finished that I wouldn’t have to quit because I was commuting to Georgia again to work. Seven months later, I lost my job here in town and the commuting started, but I never gave up.
In September 2009, I walked for my associates degree with a 3.87 GPA. All the way through graduation, I fought back tears, unable to believe that after all I’d been through in my life, I had finally gotten that far, and it was Mario’s support that made it possible. When graduation was over, I walked outside and saw him standing there and I couldn’t hold it in any longer. That was the first time in my life that I ever shed tears of joy and not pain and sorrow.
At the same time, I knew my journey was not over. After a two-week break, I started my bachelor’s degree. Despite a couple job changes that included a 9-month temp assignment and another very stressful position after that, which were both almost an hour commute each way, and the challenges of raising a scholastically unmotivated teenager, I kept my grades up and stuck with it. In November 2010, a job fell in my lap that was only three miles from home. As stressful as my job was, I loved it, but I couldn’t pass this position up. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was a good thing, as school suddenly got much harder. We were moving into subject areas I had no experience at all in, and it was taking more of my time than ever to keep up with my schoolwork. I breathed a sigh of relief when my son barely graduated high school in May 2011. One less thing to stress about.
In September 2011, I walked with my bachelor’s degree with a 3.77 GPA. As I sat in the auditorium, I thought of a friend of mine I’d met through a University of Phoenix student group, who at just a few years younger than me was just starting her bachelor’s and dealing with stage 4 breast cancer that had spread to several other parts of her body since her original diagnosis in February 2009, and how she might not get to see that day.
That evening I called her and told her I thought she should apply to speak at her bachelor’s graduation. As much as Mario’s support got me through school, just being in school is what had gotten her through her associates degree. I talked to her on the phone last night, as she was putting the finishing touches on her speech, which he will use on Friday to audition. She has one week of school left, and doctors have stopped all treatment, saying they will only use radiation for pain management going forward. We’ve never met in person, but she told me last night how much my encouragement has meant to her. She sent me a copy of her speech, and as I read it, I couldn’t help but cry for her. At the end of June, I’ll be traveling to Louisville, Kentucky for her graduation. By then, she will be a month into her masters degree. After that, she’s considering her PhD. Something else to keep her motivated to live, as she’s a single woman with no children and no family support.
So, I guess I could say when I go to her graduation, I will be fulfilling another of my goals, because I’ll finally get to meet her. But in 18 months, I hope to get to share in her joy again, as she is believing that she’ll walk for her masters cancer-free.
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
May 6th, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Welcome, Leeja! That is a very inspiring story. Congratulations on your degree! If folks read your story I hope they come away with the message that it is never too late to pursue a dream, be it a marathon or a bachelor’s degree. Thanks for sharing! Bret
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o wow!!! many kudos to you, bret! vicki
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
May 6th, 2012 at 1:29 pm
Thanks, Vicki!
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Bret: Good for you!! Do you know Charlie Johnston from Nevada Magazine? If not, I need to put the two of you in touch. He has run 33 marathons so far and I’m sure the two of you have run a few of the same together without even knowing it. You’re setting such a great example and also doing a great thing for yourself. Keep it up!
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
May 7th, 2012 at 11:35 am
I don’t know Charlie, but WOW! Compared to him, I’m still just a casual runner. Thanks for sharing, Tiffany. Bret
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Go Bret! I enjoyed this story. I’ll cheer for you at the NY Marathon when you win that lottery. – - Beth
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
May 7th, 2012 at 6:10 pm
When I get do finally get in and get back to NYC, looking forward to sharing another pizza with you, Beth! Thanks, Bret
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Way to go Dr Bret! I was reading a story about a review of the early days of Chez Panise and it got panned pretty good. The story goes on that the next week, a well know writer (and foodie) responded that the critique was unfair only in that if we are not striving for goals that are aggressive or seem out of touch, how will we ever achieve greatness? This story has really stuck with me. Way to go on getting that 10th run done! I think that is why when I set up my goals, i do a list for personal and business, putting in some aggressive ones in each category! sometimes it is progress, not perfection!
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
May 7th, 2012 at 6:12 pm
Great advice, Mark. You seem to be doing a great job of achieving aggressive goals that matter. I’m blaming you and Campo for keeping me from losing weight and therefore doing better on my run
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Bret
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Bret,
Congratulations on sticking to your goal and fighting through adversity. I completely agree that a lot of our struggles are between our ears. I have put off many things in life like my MBA. Always thinking next year things would slow down and be a good time to start. Well as it turns out there is never a good time to start. However, when I ran out of excuses and make a commitment to myself I discovered there is always time for my priorities in life. One of my favorite quotes is, “Nothing good comes without sacrifice”.
Jason
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
May 8th, 2012 at 8:41 am
Great thoughts, Jason. So right, never a good time to start, but once you do, you WILL finish as long as you don’t quit. Thanks for sharing! Bret
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