I care

These past couple of weeks have been interesting for me. Before getting into running, I felt very disconnected from my body and really didn’t understand what was going on with it a lot of the time. Through my training I have had the opportunity to gather so much data on what works well for me and experience the effects of how I have been looking after myself. It has really started to dawn on me – I have one body to see me through this life and so it is essential to take care of it! I think we tend to forget that we are not invincible sometimes (or at least I do!) so this week I want to encourage you to reflect on how you take of yourself. Last year, I had the opportunity to care for a dear friend who was sick and not able to leave her bed – it felt really rewarding to be so caring and left me thinking, why am I not this caring with myself? Maybe if we all treated ourselves the same way we would our treat our dear friends or loved ones – we’d live longer, healthier lives!

I found this quote:

“I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.”
Pablo Casals

So whether its for myself or others….this week is going to be a practise in caring!

Compassion and limitations

My personal experience of athletes (and of myself) has led me to think we tend to ask a lot of our bodies and have high expectations of what we are physically able to do. The past couple of weeks have been a lesson in realizing my own physical limits and the importance of looking after myself! Many tired runs, worn out running shoes and random long runs have resulted in me injuring my foot and having to pull out of the Bristol 10km this weekend. I was having a hard time accepting the reality of the situation without beating myself up about the decisions I made to get me to this point. After a couple of conversations with very wise friends, I realized that the only way we can truly learn is through our experience. I think we are always doing what we think is best is the moment. In retrospect we can stand back and decide we ‘should’ have done something differently. I have definitely come out of races thinking – ‘I should have run faster there’ or ‘I should have had more sleep last night’…you could spend you whole life beating yourself up for decisions that didn’t get you the result you were going for, but it’s the times that we don’t get what we want that teach us the most!

A while ago a friend of mine posted the passage below on her blog with the line “Oh so that’s what compassion is!”. I felt so moved when I read it – the message really resonates with me. I think having compassion for oneself is essential to be able to achieve goals. There are always going to be times when we fail or realize that something was not ‘good’ after the fact. In order to learn and move forward, we need to accept the reality of a given situation, seek to understand how we got there and decide how we might do things differently next time.

“I think it’s a mistake to ever look for hope outside of one’s self. One day the house smells of fresh bread, the next of smoke and blood. One day you faint because the gardener cuts his finger off, within a week you’re climbing over corpses of children bombed in a subway. What hope can there be if that is so? I tried to die near the end of the war. The same dream returned each night until I dared not to go to sleep and grew quite ill. I dreamed I had a child, and even in the dream I saw it was my life, and it was an idiot, and I ran away. But it always crept onto my lap again, clutched at my clothes. Until I thought, if I could kiss it, whatever in it was my own, perhaps I could sleep. And I bent to its broken face, and it was horrible…but I kissed it. I think one must finally take one’s life in one’s arms.”
Arthur Miller

London Marathon

This time last week many of my running friends had just finished what may have been the biggest race of their year – the London Marathon. I was so excited to be in London for the race and was lucky enough to tag along with a friend who knew all the good places to stand!

There is something so special about the buzz surrounding a big race, especially a marathon. With over 35,000 people running this year, this was going to be an epic event.

I had the privilege of watching the New York Marathon last November and found it to be one of the most exciting, moving experiences of my life. I was in tears watching Meb Keflezighi sprint past to win the race. A marathon is a real test of human endurance.  It takes months of preparation to get you to the start line and then over two hours of hard effort covering a distance of 26.2 miles to complete the race!

London had a different feel for me to New York because I knew many people who were competing. I knew the work that had gone into their preparation and the goals that they were trying to achieve. I spent most of the race shouting at the top of my voice! Watching the race stirred up so much emotion for me – my friends and I were cheering for all the runners regardless of whether we knew them or not! I felt overwhelmed with admiration for every person’s effort.

Although some of my friends did not run the race they had planned, I walked away from the day feeling like I had learned something very important.  Each of them was willing to do everything they could to achieve their goal. Even if they didn’t get the time they wanted – the important thing was that they tried their best to make it happen. Hanging out with everyone at the finish line helped me to realise that there is no gain to be had from being disappointed with your performance. If you can go to bed at night knowing that you set out to reach your goal, and you did everything you could to try to make that happen – then the pride in your achievement is not dependent on the end result.

The American elite runner Deena Kastor had a rough day in London. She ran her slowest ever marathon – yet I felt so much respect for her after reading her post-race comments.

“I just didn’t want to drop out of another race,” Kastor said.  “I dropped out of New York before, I was forced to drop out of Beijing, and I don’t want to ever have to do that unless it’s dire circumstances.  If I could keep moving forward, I wanted to commit to that finish line.  I put too much work into this race to not get there.”

I think it’s true, unless you physically cannot complete, you owe it to yourself to do everything you can to finish. I think it’s riding out the tough times that will make you a stronger athlete and a stronger willed person. I think a marathon is an amazing way to build your inner strength and test your will. I am so inspired by everyone who took part and I definitely want to run a marathon myself someday!