Tony’s Footprint

 GWTC President, Tony Guillen,

“I would rather face running a marathon, or riding a century than sitting down and writing an article.” Tony Guillen

Quotes can often be great sources for inspiration. A famous author or political figure may have said something that inspired you to action. I imagine that we all have a go to Prefontaine quote that we call upon at some time during a race. So imagine my surprise that I found inspiration in my own dread and procrastination about writing this month to write about getting out of our comfort zones.

The greatest sense of accomplishment for me has always come when I reach beyond my comfort zone. Studying engineering definitely put me out of my comfort zone and the joy I experienced graduation day was beyond words. Running my first 5k, 10k, half marathon, and marathons were all results of getting way outside the comfort zone. They all brought with them a huge sense of accomplishment. Currently my career and serving as GWTC president give me pause because they cause me to reach well beyond what I am comfortable doing. However both give me a great sense of pride just for taking the chance to try something I never thought I would do. Next time you are in the middle of a track workout, or even in a race, think about your comfort zone and work to stretch beyond it. You will be happy you did and before you know it, what used to be outside that zone is now smack in the middle of it. Of course that means you now have a new level of comfort to go beyond.

As usual all I need to do is look into our club to find examples of folks willing to stretch themselves. Tracy Taylor has graciously offered to take on our Training Coordinator duties from Beth Alexander. Beth has done a fantastic job getting all or our different training opportunities organized and Tracy has already stepped it up a notch with the development of a GWTC Training Groups page on Facebook. The Trailblazers group has also gotten going again this year with the help of new club member Jim and Kristin Halley. Jim is posting the weekly runs on the training group page. Let him know if you are interested in helping out at any of the weekly runs. It is a great way to get outside your comfort zone. You can get an overview of all of them at the Training Groups Overview.

Well, I made it to the end of another column but a marathon still sounds like it would have been more fun!

See you on the roads,

Tony