"One More Time!"

We welcome Kentucky-bred and Dallas-based Brett Duncan as today's guest blogger. Brett Duncan is Vice President of Global Marketing for Mannatech, a company that distributes the most advanced nutritional supplements made from Real Food Technology. He also blogs regularly at MarketingInProgress.com, where you can download his free marketing ebook. Follow Brett on Twitter: @bdunc1.

Let me make one thing very clear right off the top: I’m currently not an avid runner.

So what am I doing writing for a site like ATW5k, you may ask? A site dedicated to motivating runners and sharing tips on how to make it all come together? What could I possibly offer, I’m sure you’re wondering, yes?

The reason is simple: I was a baseball pitcher in college.

You see, not many people know the real life of the baseball pitcher. Especially once you reach the collegiate level. Sure, there’s much glory in about every fifth game when you get to take the hill as your spot in the rotation comes around. But what do you do with all that other time?

You run.

Pitchers run  A LOT. And while I had always been a decent distance runner in high school, nothing prepared me for the 3-5 mile jaunts I would run in the Texas heat about three times a week. Offset by days of long-distance sprints and the ever-monotonous “pole” (running along the outfield wall from pole to pole). Or the worst: laps around the asphalt track (yuck!).

I don’t know if we pitchers actually needed that much conditioning, or if the coaches simply didn’t know what else to do with us. Regardless, we ran, and ran, and ran.

My Runner’s Motto

Looking back on those punishing afternoons, I smile at one positive development that came from it all. As I continuously ran laps around the campus, and completed circles around the track, and tapped my toe on yet another foul line, I tried to put things in perspective enough to keep me going.

My motto was this:

“I can do anything one more time.”

This was my version of “eating the elephant one bite at a time.” Running 20 foul poles was never fun and seemed impossible; running one foul pole was always doable. Running 5 laps around the campus was scarier than a Wes Craven movie; running around the campus one more time was within reach.

One bite at at time...

Of course, once I would complete that “one more time” item, there was typically another “one” to do.

But the change in mentality made all the difference. It made me focus on what was at hand, and forget about what was coming. It forced me to simply do. It got me out of thinking how horrible my current circumstances were and made me simply take care of the job at hand.

Interestingly enough, it’s a mentality that peppers the most disciplined parts of my life. When I’m thinking in terms of “I can do anything one more time,” good things happen. When I don’t, it’s a crapshoot.

So I’m passing this little morsel along to you, hoping you, the avid runner, can find a way to flip the switch on your paradigm and divide your efforts into bite-sized pieces.

You can do that next hill one more time.

You can do that next mile one more time.

You can do that early-morning workout one more time.

You can do anything at mile 25.

You can do anything one more time. So stop thinking about it and go do it.

Author photo supplied. All other photos from MorgueFile.com