“FITNESS mania” has swept our land with men and women ages four to eighty-four or more participate in exercise programs to attain a common goal for health and fitness, putting into effect a test for the individuals’ mind and body if it can meet the challenges for the attainment of their ultimate goal to be healthy and fit.

Health and fitness is a test of endurance, stamina, strength, and skill where we search to find our limits and beyond them. But why would one consider fitness and health? The glamour and tradition of the “classic distance” captures the imagination. It is also “there”, as the longest, most grueling and most unpredictable event; it is a symbol of superiority in physical and mental performance.

People engaged in sports and other physical activities as the first step to health and fitness, they join competitions and activities to prove that their minds and bodies can meet the challenges to achieve their ultimate goal. They set their training/exercise time and goals to search and find their limits and go beyond them even as comparing themselves with others becomes a common thing.

They learn many “secrets” of survival, although it is not guaranteed that everybody will experience that beautiful, pain-free training dreams, however, these events are true tests of the athlete and wanabe’s.

Proper training, diet, competition experience, pacing and so forth that is important, but among the elusive elements that make training special are the combination of Mother Nature and your mental ability to overcome physical torture, to learn how to discover the peace inside of pain.

Sometimes you can first discover that strength from the words of others should be chiseled in your mind because once you cross the finish line, there isn’t a thing you can’t do.