I've posted before about how running for me is something that I do to keep myself sharp. Its something I do to stay one step ahead of the game. Its something I do because I like to do it. One of the added bonuses to running is that it can serve as a great analogy for lots of things in life. Here are five things I've learned after lacing up my running shoes.
1). Divide to conquer
When I go out on long runs there are so many things that I could be thinking about. I recently wrote about what some of those things are. While its true you need to have leg strength and stamina to run distances, the real strength in running comes from your mind. Running, like many solo sports, is incredibly mental. There have been days where I think I'm exhausted because of not eating enough food or drinking enough water and I stop. But, there are also days where I've experienced that feeling, powered through, and discovered that I was not, in fact hungry or thirsty, but that my mind wanted me to stop.
The most important thing to do on long runs is never to run 1 mile and say wow, I'm tired and I have 12.1 to go. That kind of mentality will kill you quickly because you are always a long ways from your goal. The best mentality is one where you can chop things into chunks, divide it up and conquer it. I'll check out the mileage beforehand to know that when I reach a specific street corner, I've accomplished phase 1 and can unleash phase 2. This is the same approach that can be taken in life.
If you set out on day 1 to accomplish your life's goal you're likely never to reach it. Mostly because the goal is all the way at mile 13 and you're still on the first half mile. But, if you start identifying those phase markers, sooner or later you start to see that you do indeed have the stamina and tenacity to reach the finish line.
2). Always do more
The longest runs are always hard to keep going. Last Saturday I ran 14.6 miles (arbitrary, I know) which included a GIANT hill at mile 9. I wasn't aware of this hill when I plotted my route, but when I arrived, I had no choice but to run up it. I was tired, but I had also promised Janel that I would be running the entire route and couldn't back out on my promise. So, I pushed through to the top of the hill, wheezed a bit as I started downward, and soon discovered that I was just fine, though admittedly my legs were a bit sore later that day.
When I often break my races into phases like I just described above, I often find myself searching for the end of the phase, sometimes to the detriment of my mental tenacity. I am so desperate to see that I've made progress that I forget to stay sharp and in the moment. But, I've found, that in those moments when I feel that I need to take a break, by pushing just a few moments past that point gives me the renewed energy I need to keep going.
In life, we often come to places where we feel the need to stop. We are climbing a hill or experiencing difficulties. In running, you can stop and still reach your destination, but it feels like cheating, like you didn't REALLY run the whole time. If we apply this to life, we know we'll be okay if we stop for a second, but we will have never been running the whole time. If we do more, and push to the crest of the hill or to the finish line, we will probably find that the effort was worth it.
3). There is always room for improvement
While we can run and run and push through hard moments and continue to do more and more, we can always find ways to improve. This isn't to say we all need to be more self-critical, because chances are we are already our harshest critics, but rather, we always need to know that we can do better. This is what motivates us. This is what drives us. I was on a bus tour of Detroit this weekend and we drove through a section that is on the Detroit marathon. While I was interested in the history of the neighborhood, I was constantly thinking more about how I felt running down the particular road and how I'd like to run it again to improve on my time. We can always improve our time.
4). Winning isn't everything
While improving on time is great, the end goal isn't always to improve to the point of winning. And honestly, winning the race has NEVER been my goal. The beauty in running is that it is a solo competition, and while there are some nice purses involved to the winners of big races, I do not expect myself to ever be in a position to compete for those purses. And while you could say to me that I should have a goal like that to keep pushing for, I know realistically that as much as I love running, I will never put in the effort needed to become an elite runner. The reason being I want to dedicate my time towards other things.
But, that's okay, because winning isn't everything. It isn't everything to win the whole race, or even your age bracket. Winning is a bonus. What really matters is that you improved on your time. Why? Because this means you put in the work to make some improvements. You put in the effort to do THAT much better than last time, even if it is only 1 second. And because you can't run a perfect race every time. While we would love to think that winning is our ultimate goal, the truth is that if we have satisfied improvement in ourselves, we should be satisfied with our performance. This is true in all things we pursue.
5). You cannot compare yourself to others
Out on runs I often find myself running to 'catch' other runners. I see someone up the sidewalk and make it my mission to pass them. I usually do, but sometimes this is at great detriment to my run. If I see a person on mile 1 of my 13 mile run and work very hard to catch them, I'm often exhausted at mile 10 because of the energy I spent earlier. You never know if someone else is out for a 2 mile sprint or a 26 mile run, and because of that, comparing yourself to them is not helpful in training for your best time.
This is one thing I always forget to apply to other parts of my life, but its arguably the most important. I mentioned before that I was a bit nervous about grad school, mostly because I wondered if I could keep up with everyone else. But, I'm not out to be the winner and I certainly can't compare myself to others. It would be easy for me to say that I don't have what it takes when many members of my class are able to take other courses by waiving out of statistics and economics. But, this isn't necessarily true. For me to be the best planner I can be, I need these classes to form a basis of my education. And even if many other classmates get to take higher level courses because they already had these classes, it has no bearing on whether or not I become a successful planner. Some classmates might be running a 5K while I'm running a marathon.
In a society that places high importance on keeping up with others and paying attention to status, its easy to think that everyone is running the same race you are. But the truth is, we aren't. And while we can talk to each other and learn from each other and support each other, just as runners do during a race, we cannot compare our experiences to one another. At the end of a race, the guy who ran 8:00 minute miles may not be as successful as the guy who ran 9:30 miles because the 8 minute man usually runs 7:30s. The point is, one guy may have finished first, but may ultimately be disappointed in his result, whereas a slower runner may be thrilled by breaking his personal best by 7 seconds.
Nuggets of wisdom from the trail.
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