Let me 1st start out by saying that I am not a runner. I had never run a race before and had not planned to before about 1 minute to race time, on New Years Eve day, in Londonderry NH (Millennium Mile Race). Yup, that is right, I waited for the last possible minute. Crazy, yes – did I pay for it, absolutely. So I figured, “1 mile, it can not be that bad” when my oldest daughter made the decision to run the entire way. I was planning to stick back with my youngest daughter, and run for a little while, walk for a little while, and really just take it easy. About a minute before the start of the race my wife decides that she is going to stay back with my youngest daughter, and says “why don’t you just run?” Now I am not one to back down from a challenge, or about to tell my daughter that I can’t run beside her because I am not “dressed” or prepared for it, so I say “Sure!” and try to get mentally prepared for the race – 45 seconds to go.

As we get closer to the starting line, I begin to jog and think to myself, “this is not going to be that bad.” The first quarter mile goes by rather quick, and I am keeping pace with my daughter, trying to push her a little bit. We cruise by the ½ mile banner and I am still good, and am surprised that my daughter is doing so well. Around the ¾ mark my daughter starts to fade a little bit, so I drop back and continue to coach her in breathing and kicking her legs, to be light on her feet.

As we finish, I grab her hand and tell her that we need to continue to walk for a little while to keep our muscles from tightening. I feel fine for the rest of the day, now granted my thighs are hurting, but feel good. Ok, phew, I survived. My daughter is faring much better than I.

Then I wake up on January 2nd. My thighs are no longer hurting, they are on fire. I feel like I ran a 10 mile race (or can only imagine this is what it feels like). My daughter has minimal complaints and looks to be fairly normal.

On to day 3. Day 3 starts off as Day 2 started off, thighs are still hurting, but now I have the same pain right above my feet, within my shins. As the day a progresses, the pain seems to subside a little bit, but the pain still lingers.

So now what does stretching have to do with strategy you ask??

Well if I were able to plan in advance for this, know what I was in for and prepare for what was ahead of me, I would have been able to limit the after-effects of my efforts. Eating a solid meal the night before (and not running it on New Years Eve day!!!) drinking a lot of fluids in advance as well as stretching and ensuring that my muscles were ready for the undertaking ahead of me.

This goes the same for Social Media Strategy. If you are not ready to get involved, don’t. Do the appropriate research, ask the appropriate questions and prepare for your undertaking. Do not just get involved because someone says that you should. And if they do, make sure that you have enough time to prepare.