Beat Your Fear Of Falling

lewopschall
May 3, 2015
2 min read

About a year ago I was preparing for my first trip to visit Cincinnati. I eagerly read Wikipedia learning about the city’s German heritage, the different neighborhoods and the locals love for Skyline Chili and Graeter’s ice cream. One defining characteristic was left out on that Wikipedia page I studied. The landscape.

If you’ve been to Cincinnati you know that the whole city is compiled of a bunch of hills. If you are runner, you will quickly become accustomed to running 300-foot elevation differences or get hurt trying as I did this fall.

In conversation I had mentioned the monstrous mountains to my running buddy Amy, who lives in Wichita Falls, Texas. When she came up to visit a couple months ago she of course went on a few runs in my neighborhood with me. Despite my warning she was dumbfounded by the magnitude of the hills. (She runs is Texas – flat planes, all the time.) As we were on a run she pulled back watching my form as we headed down one of the steep slopes. “You should open up your stride more,” she told me. I thought her suggestion could possibly help with the pain I had developed since running in Cincinnati, so I gave it a try.

The Flying Pig Marathon course is a good taste of what running in Cincinnati is like. Hilly. Sunday I ran the half. The only way to make it from downtown through Eden Park and to Walnut Hills is to climb. Take a look for yourself.

What comes up though, must come down. And down I went. Making my way down Gilbert Avenue I closed my eyes and let go of control. I could feel gravity pulling and my momentum pushing me. At times I was fearful, what if I start moving so fast I trip and plummet to the pavement? Instead of caving from fear I embraced the force.

What are you afraid of? Is it an honest conversation you need to have with a friend and you aren’t sure how they are going to take it? Are you nervous you aren’t good enough? Not strong enough? Maybe you are a student in college fearful of what’s to come after graduating this spring. How often do we let fear paralyze us?

Instead of letting fear stop us from reaching our potential, why not foster the energy that’s leading us to our goals? And sometimes it’s as easy as letting go - Letting go of your fear of falling, speeding down the slope to the finish.