04/27/2023
Trail Mixup - Thursday Edition
What life applicable lesson(s) have you learned from running?
I share two reminders I have enjoyed from two friends this past weekend.
Almost anyone that has run long distances knows imbedded in the journey is a life lesson. It’s why so many leaders talk about, or books are written about, the importance of doing hard things.
Steve Prefontaine once said racing was art, if you were capable of understanding it.
This weekend 2 friends of mine reminded me of this.
A friend and athlete I coach had one of those moments when a race becomes really tough. We all know people that fall apart when the unexpected or undesirable happens. Maybe we ourselves aren’t as stoic as we should or could be. Maybe we ourselves let discomfort, pain and/or suffering ruin our day, week, month, etc.
I personally started running ultras to find more peace. To find ways to let things just flow off me. To find more joy even in the time of trials.
My friend Tony ran 100 miles again this weekend. A pretty awesome accomplishment in itself. A testament to his dedication, conditioning and physical training. But on this weekend what enabled him to finish was more his mental fortitude, his willingness to flow with the punches and get up and punch back harder. That is not easily coachable…that comes more from within.
Not even a third of the way through the race, Tony was one all fours purging himself. Yes..vomiting. Before that the miles were ticking off slowly as he was nauseous for miles. At one point he called me to tell me he felt his race was coming to an early end. Whether it was the heat of the day or something he ate, whatever it was was wrecking his race and had put him behind his needed pace. But instead of completely falling apart,he battled. He ignored the voices of doubt and despair and keep pushing forward. And eventually he rebounded. But not to be outdone, the race punched back and the rains came…sideways in fact. But still Tony pushed forward. Undeterred. Until he finished what he started. Earning another 100 mile buckle.
Just like life, more often than not the trials we are in shall pass too. We just need to not lose hope and keep focused on moving forward. I love the reminder Tony’s race illustrates. Thank you Tony!
The other lesson comes from my friend Emily. For me, her story is not one of purging and tremendous struggle, but rather of enjoyment. Not loosing sight of enjoying the race day battle we go through. Emily PR’ed a pretty challenging 50k. One in fact with enough hills that equates to about 5 trips up and down the Empire State Building. That’s impressive. But what is more impressive to me is if you ask Emily to describe the race, she’ll mention the hills, difficult terrain and how hard the race was at times, but she will also mention how at times she ran with airplane wings. Airplane wings? Yep, just like when we were kids pretending to fly. Whether it was to help cool her off or just having fun, it’s a reminder to me that we are never to old and meant to loose sight of having have fun and enjoying life. And that those of us out there running around in the woods are truly blessed to still be able to play like that. Tough times don’t need to force us away from joy. In fact, it is my opinion that whatever our trials are should remind us to seek out joy! So as Emily did, I encourage you to do. Find your happy place and airplane wings away (unless you really need to focus on balance, then maybe wait a bit to do the airplane wings)
Photos courtesy of their FB/Strava posts
