Had a week off and went for a long run

Hello Dear Reader, you may have noticed that I had a week off from writing last week. Instead I ran my second ever half marathon and learned a few things.

The first thing I learned was, I run completely differently in organised events than I do when my partner and I go out for training runs. I come in to organised races with the mindset of "If I can run to half way then I'll be happy", where as on the training runs I have the mindset of "I will run for as long as I can and walk if I need to".

Now sometimes, these may amount to the same thing. What happened in the half last weekend though was that I was running well, and then as soon as I saw the mid-point, I immediately started struggling. It was a very warm day and I'd had a very minor problem with my foot in the week up to the run, but physically I could keep going beyond the halfway point. And yet, as the half way point came up, it was as though my head thought that it was the finish, not that we had to do the same distance again.

Needless to say, the second half of the run was a lot more difficult than the first half, the rhythm had gone, the belief had gone and the joints started to hurt. By the time we were into the final km, running past the finish line several times (seriously, who puts a zig zag section where you can see the finish line for a kilometer at the end of a 13.1 mile run??) I was in a state of panic, my chest had tightened, my body had seized up and I was begging for the finish line. Then in the finish straight I started running faster to get the damn thing over with and found myself feeling much looser and wishing I'd tried to stretch out a bit sooner... oh well we live and learn and I still got a PB!

The second thing I learned was that people say the weirdest things with (I hope) the best of intentions. From the woman saying "not far now" when there were still 5 miles to go, to the woman at the finish line telling us about a half marathon through the theme park at Disneyland which was then a very long walk back to their hotel "we learned that day it's a good thing to walk around regularly after running". On training runs a common one is "don't worry, you're beating him" if I'm running in front of my partner, or "come on, you can catch him!" if I'm running behind him.

You hear all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff from spectactors when you're running. This makes some sense at an event, people want to support you while you're doing the event that they aren't doing, it definitely provides a higher concentration of comments. But even when you're on a training run, for some reason, people feel the need to shout things at you. My guess is that people feel supportive by doing this, and maybe it makes them feel better for the fact that they aren't doing the same thing. However, if you shout things like a certain man at the half last weekend was doing... saying "you should be running shouldn't you?" in the most condescending voice to anyone he saw that was walking... well you sir are standing on the sidelines doing nothing but insult people, so you can fuck right off!

The third and final thing I learned last weekend, or at least the final thing I'm going to mention here, is that long distance runners are a lovely bunch of people. If you're struggling, they cheer you on; if you're doing well they cheer you on; if it's your first race, they cheer you on, if it's your 100th race, they cheer you on! Basically whatever you do, you're surrounded by a wonderfully supportive group of people, and if they shout things at you, they are usually a lot more helpful than even the most well meaning spectator. The difference is that they are right there with you, you are connected by a common experience, and everyone wants each other to succeed.

All in all, an organised running event is an interesting metaphor for life. People will say well meaning things with zero knowledge of what you're going through and you may hate them for it. You meet people where you have a lot in common and you all support each other easily because you're working towards the same thing. And finally, if you believe something, it becomes the truth. If you believe you can run a half marathon and you train for it, then you can run a half marathon. However, if you believe you can only get to half way, then you will get to half way... and then you'll have a hell of a time getting further!

Mindset is so important, belief is so important and finally, support from those around you is so important. With all of these things put together, you can do anything you want to do.

So Dear Reader, do you have everything you need? Do you have belief, support and a the right mindset for whatever you're trying to achieve right now? If not, these can cause you to find things really difficult. If you want to findout how to get these things then coaching could help you! Leave a comment if you'd be interested in finding out more.

That's all for this week, until next time Dear Reader x