Our daughter has not been sleeping well the last week, so neither have we!  Sleep is my ONE thing. If I get a good night sleep, I can conquer the mountain. After getting through the morning, getting some work done, and the family fed, I had 3 hours to myself as the girls were visiting friends. I knew 3 hours was a good amount of time to take on the tasks I had outlined…cleaning the closets, a couple blogs, and a workout. So what did I do?  I slowed down. I realized I had pushed right past my regular morning meditation with the hairiness in the morning, so I started there.  After the 20 min meditation, I used my “Calm” app and did an additional 20 min body scan to slow the breath down and gain some “creative intelligence.” I rose refreshed, recharged and with 100% more vigor to go after my tasks.  Even the inspiration to write this blog. 🙂 Sometimes we need to SLOW down to ACCELERATE forward. Colin

I didn’t realize that I had anymore to give until I was running on empty. Three-quarters of the way through a week-long 160 Mile/250 Km adventure race in Iceland, I was on my last leg. Literally. Battered by freezing winds and pouring rain, I was running a marathon a day over jagged volcanic rocks,  which caused me to develop a high ankle sprain. I was at the end of my rope. I had attempted two races previously, only finishing one. Somewhere deep within myself I knew I had the capacity to finish another one, but my foot (now swollen to twice its normal size) was telling me different. When I awoke for the final day facing 45 miles and 70km up ahead, I could barely put weight on my right foot. Unsure if I could run, my tent-mates and teammates Ash and Jesse encouraged me to get out there and just put one foot in front of the other for as long as possible: To get into the arena and do the best I could. …

I remember the time specifically when I realized I could be better than I was.  It was grade 9 and I was running in the 800 M Track & Field City Semi-Finals.  I always competed but was never relevant in placing.   I for once took our coaches advice about visualizing the outcome and playing it in my mind the night before. It was on the 3rd turn with 200 M left that I felt I may have some gas left in the tank and could pass other runners.  Let me be clear, I was not up all night thinking about it.  It was 10 min.   Wouldn’t you know it, on race day at the 600 M mark, like a birdie sitting on my shoulder, I had a nudge to run as hard as possible to the finish. I remembered seeing the way to the finish.  The 800 M is often a big lumpy crowd of 10-15 runners.  I was in the last 3rd and I shot myself up into 4th place and passed a …