Historically, I’m not someone who runs. Why? Every reason you already know. It's hard, it's laborious, it's universally known as awful. You get it. Two weeks before my first half marathon I started to worry. Have I trained enough? (The answer was no.) I had indeed "started" training in May but at this point I was completely off the bandwagon. In fact there was no band, there was no wagon. In a panic I hopped on the world wide web and bought compression socks and protein thinking the combination would be the magic ticket to combat my procrastination. I had read about both expensive and mystical products in a running article by someone who had finished countless half marathons.

I thought to myself “Perfect! A quick simple solution I can just buy!” When they arrived two days later (thank you Amazon Prime) I slipped on the socks and hit the gym to log the miles I had been too long neglecting. Not even thirty minutes in and I was nauseous. The socks were making me overheat, they were constricting as heck, I couldn't feel my ankles, I thought I might faint soon, and most of all: they mysteriously were not making up for my lack of work leading up to this moment.

Initially, I thought a shortcut was the only way I could do this thing: this thing I had been masterfully procrastinating - this thing I was scared of. The next time I went to the gym I left without the socks. By race day, I had returned them.

Nothing can ever replace just doing the work. You are the only tool you need. Do the work. Compression socks and protein have never finished a half marathon.

But I have.