More prison perspective...

Today marks my second to last day on the treadmill.  Friday I venture to the streets.  At the risk of stating the obvious, the greatest challenge with logging so many mile on the treadmill is more mental than physical.  I am convinced that perspective is what makes all the difference in the world.  I consciously remind myself every single day how lucky I am to do what I do.  There are so many people that have it so much worse than I do.  There are people that have physical limitations and there are others who have mental limitations.  I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to do this.  I am 41 years old, yet yesterday I broke the 1,000 mile mark for 2012 already and truly feel that this is still the 'training' phase or preparation phase of this year.

For those of you that have not read more of my story, I spent almost six years in a Federal Prison and the only kind of running I could do there was on a 1/3 mile track, for two years, logging just over 5,000 miles in Northern Minnesota, all of it outside, year round, suddenly, the treadmill at home does not seem like such a challenge.   

Beginning in just about two weeks my plan is to run the route of the marathon that is held in my home town every day, I will begin March 15th and do not plan on stopping until______?  The LaCrosse Fitness Festival Marathon is a Boston qualifier, so the route is legitimate, I will be using the Runmeter app on my i-phone and I will be Tweeting my progress as I go.  I will run regardless of the weather and after running in Duluth Minnesota weather for two years behind a fence, I believe I am more than prepared for the challenge.  

The fact that I ran over 5,000 miles behind that fence including a 40 mile run (the month of my 40th birthday) and 59 unofficial consecutive marathons (from Aug 7th, 2010 through Oct 4th, 2010) is not as big of a deal until you realize that I did it without the support that I have now.  I now receive encouragement and motivation from all over the country as well as all over the world.  Sometimes it actually gives me goose bumps!   I can only hope to motivate and inspire others the way that others have motivated and inspired me.  

By the way, the following is a "tweet" that I received last night around 10pm and this is what the book "365" is about (momentum and how to create it).  Until you have it, there will always be a reason "not to_________" (fill in the blank) - he went on in a later tweet referencing 'feeling' the momentum.  I had this vision of the running platform for this book a few years ago and stuck with it because of what is in this tweet can and should be experienced by anyone, anywhere.  The hardest part about achievement is usually mental - take that out of the equation and you really have no idea what you are capable of!...

"@jeffreyjmiller1 it may have taken until 10pm, but damnit I got my pushups/situps in. If it hadn't been day 15, I probably would have passed."

 ...Like I said, the hardest part about achievement is usually mental - take that out of the equation and you really have no idea what you are capable of!

Jeffrey J. Miller 

Extreme marathoner

Soon to be New York Times best selling author

of "The 365 Day Challenge"

@jeffreyjmiller1

www.booksbyjeff.com

jeffreyjmiller1970@yahoo.com

If your are interested in supporting me as I attempt to complete a full marathon every day, as well as discovering how to create your own unstoppable momentum...  order the book