What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient… highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed — fully understood — that sticks; right in there somewhere. — Dom Cobb, Inception

I have a half marathon this weekend that I wasn’t planning on running and attempting to come in at 1:58 — a speed I’m not fully trained for. Where did these ideas, inspiration, or motivation come from?

Is Leo in my head planting ideas? The simple answer is that I saw a contest on @DiaryAvgRunner’s twitter, then followed it to her blog, which then led me back to twitter to enter. So does that make @DiaryAvgRunner a player in Cobb’s Inception machine? Maybe…

But what about the thought that I can run faster miles than I am currently training for? Not just one… 13.1 of them. That’s the true Inception. That’s the dream WITHIN the dream. Is that kid from 3rd from the sun bouncing off the walls in my brain?

That’s why I love racing. The thought that on race day, anything is possible. My average time at this race is 2:13 — having run it the past 4 years. So what makes me think year 5 will produce a 15-minute improvement? I just told you: Inception.

Once an idea creeps into your mind, especially a Runner’s mind, it is nurtured, massaged and designed to overcome any rational thought. I have the 13.1 distance in me, that was the part of this venture without question. I just needed to be presented with a way in. Enter @DiaryAvgRunner moving all stealth like. A contest? Sure, I’ll throw my name in. Once the opportunity was there, it was the runner’s wiring in my brain that came up with the idea to run the fastest half marathon my asics have ever seen. But in order for an idea to take place and stick, the idea has to come from the person. It can’t be someone else’s idea… or can it? Inception.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa