Feel the Fear and Do It Anyways

I recently ran my first marathon. As a runner, this is something I previously told myself was too far out of reach for my running skillset. I mean, I just ran for fun and signed up for races because they came with a cool free t-shirt. In fact, I consistently talked myself out of goals I wanted to achieve because I didn’t think I was good enough, strong enough, or talented enough. Why do we doubt ourselves when we support everyone else around us?

Picking up my bib at the Expo 

In 2024 I enrolled in the Institute of Integrated Nutrition after being inspired by my own health transformation. I managed to shed the excess 33lbs that I packed on thanks midlife perimenopause. I had transformed my daily eating habits, was back to running after knee surgery and running faster and further than ever before thanks to strength training. Physically, I felt great but mentally I was struggling. I was overwhelmed by stress, lack of confidence and feeling burnt out from a 24-year long corporate design career.

Going back to school was nothing like I expected. It was fun and I tore into each new lesson with feverish excitement to learn more. It was a stark contrast to any previous school experience I had as a young rebellious teenager or party-focused college student who only went through the motions while counting down the minutes until class was over.

Early on in one of the class modules, there was a phrase that stuck out to me: “feel the fear and do it anyways”. The instructor noted to write down something we’ve always wanted to do but had been too afraid to do. I instantly wrote down “run a marathon”. But, I could never run 26.2 miles, who does that? Well, only 1-2% of the population if you look up the data. How cool would it be to be part of that small percentage of people? Then I started asking myself, why not? At least, why not try? How many dreams, goals and ideas had I previously shut down by telling myself it wasn’t possible, at least not for me. So, I decided that in this era of change I was going to do it in hopes that this same “feel the fear and do it anyways” mantra would also translate in other areas of life such as my career, school, starting a new business and my relationships with others.

So, I embarked on a 16-week journey to see if I could actually cross that finish line at mile 26.2. I had no idea where to start but just as with anything in life, you put one foot in front of the other and move forward. If you encounter roadblocks along the way, you make adjustments and try again. And I’ll tell you that training for this race wasn’t without its own set of challenges.

What I discovered in the process was that my biggest obstacle wasn’t any physical limitations but rather my mental limitations. Any kind of previous training I did for 10Ks or the 3 half marathons I had run before was just to ‘add more miles’. But now my training plan consisted of 100, 200 & 800-meter repeats, tempo runs, strides, surges and fartleks – heh, yes you read that correctly. What were all these strange types of runs? I’d heard of them before, but only from experienced runners and I wasn’t one of them.

At first, I was terrified to try speed work on a track and these longer distances than I’d never attempted before. Where on earth would I find a track? How the hell would I run 18 miles and where even would I find somewhere to run that far? But you know what happened? I figured it out. I navigated the unknown and I tried new things. They didn’t always work at first, but I course corrected and tried again. In fact, during the process I reconnected with a friend after over 20 years who thanks to social media I learned was also training for their first marathon too. Together we ran in new places that accommodated these new long distances and would you believe it, I even found a public track! I ran on a treadmill when it was raining and layered up while navigating runs in the sub-freezing temperatures that I’d never run in before.

Yes, there were obstacles along the way. Yes, I had to adjust my training. During those times it felt like I was going backwards and became frustrated and scared. But I had a choice. I could sulk in my own temporary defeat, give up, or I could narrow my focus to the task at hand and push through. Thinking about the finish line and this unknown distance I’d never run before evoked fear and unnecessary stress. So, whenever these moments of doubt happened, I pulled myself back to the present moment and focused on the run in front of me for that day.

Then after 4-months of hard work, race day was upon me. Once again, putting myself in an unfamiliar place, doing something I’d never done before and not knowing what the outcome would be. When you train for a marathon, you never run the entire distance. I had only run 19 miles as my longest distance, but on this day I had to run over 7 miles more than that. What if something went wrong, what I didn’t finish? Well, instead of focusing on the negative, I focused on what if I DID finish?

At the start line, trusting the process and excited for the adventure of it all.

By choosing a positive mindset it doesn’t mean the fear goes away. You can acknowledge its presence but it doesn't have to make choices for you. And, so what if I didn’t cross the finish line this time, I would simply try again. I decided I would rather fail and try again rather than knowing I was too afraid to try in the first place. So 4 hours and 20 minutes later, I crossed that finish line having a better race day experience than I could have hoped for with my husband, our 2 dogs, and my parents cheering me on.

You know what else happened? During the marathon training block I managed to get promoted at job where I thought I wasn’t good enough. If they thought I was good enough for the role I’d always dreamed of, why didn’t I? I also managed to put myself out there in school sessions, raising my hand to be the first to in class to participate when in the past I would slink back in the corner hoping to never be called on, and why – because I was afraid.

In the process of training for a marathon I realized that facing our fears isn’t as scary as we make it out to be. Our mindset is the single most important factor in anything we do in life. When we leverage our fear as tool allowing it to become a compass to navigate through those paralyzing thoughts it can transform that fear into a courageous action.

Felt the fear and did it anyways, I am officially a marathoner!

When I look back at the experience of marathon training, I took away 3 main ideas that not only applied to running but in everyday life as well:

1.    Embrace the unknown. The fear will be there, but it doesn’t have to control you. As humans it's in our nature to want to stay comfortable, but we will only grow as individuals when we step outside that place of comfort. This is where the real magic happens.

2.    Focus on the journey, not the outcome. If I worried too much about race day, or how prepared or not prepared I would be, I found it did nothing but led to self-doubt and worry. So, I chose to direct my attention to one run at a time and stayed in the present moment. By doing this it slowly built up more confidence with each run completed.

3.    Trust the process. With so many unknown variables that come with marathon training, just concentrate on showing up and doing the work in front of you for that day. This mindset, consistency and discipline along with a little hope and belief might just surprise you.

So, whether you want to lose weight, live a healthier lifestyle, learn a new skill, apply for that new job, or go for that goal you’ve shoved so far back in your mind you’d hope the desire for it would just fade away. Know that, it’s okay to be scared but don’t that fear stop you from trying. You just might surprise yourself and achieve the very thing you set out to do. We tend to limit ourselves because we’re afraid, but that doesn't have to be the case. So, aim high, dream big and take that leap of faith. Let your fear guide you and put a little belief in yourself. Most of all, just feel the fear and do it anyways.

“The thing you know you need to do the most is the thing that scares you the most” -Martin Kipp