One Decision

It was a couple of weeks ago now that I really started to get back into something that looks a bit like serious training. The foot has healed, the orthotics are doing their job and all I have to do is run. Sounds easy but I have definitely been challenged by this recently.

I thought having been out of the game since mid-Feb that I would have been ferocious in my attack on training. It was very enjoyable and easy when, under doctor’s orders, I was running one day on, one day off. However when it came to getting back to running 5-6 days a week I was found wanting. All of a sudden it was hard work again.

When I first started running I wasn’t dropping everything to get out and run. It took a good 12 months before the addiction really took hold and I was running at least 6 times a weeks in rain, hail, extreme heat, night or day. After the injury I expected that mental strength (some would say insanity) to kick back in. I thought I would just have to work on the physical side of it. I was wrong.

I was sent an email recently and asked about how does one go about ‘facing such enormous challenges and having such confidence to take on very large scale goals’.

It was when thinking about responding that it dawned on me and helped my current situation. The biggest of goals or challenges you set for yourself, and achieving these, comes down to one equally simple and difficult decision. Lucky for me to achieve my goal I just have make one decision a day and that is I just have to run, today. From that decision comes the confidence and ability to do it again tomorrow.

During the worst of times in ultra marathons there’s one equally simple and difficult decision to be made. Stop, or keep going. When you’ve got 25km of 80km still to go and you are in more physical and mental pain than you could ever imagine you can’t look too far ahead. You just have to keep going, the rest will take care of itself. Looking ahead doesn’t work for me. When in these types of situations, I physically look down. Focus on my feet and the metre in front of them and make one decision, to keep going.

So here I am with large scale goals in front of me. One marathon and four ultra marathons pencilled in between October and May. It sounds crazy, too hard. But I’ve already run today so I can relax. I’ll just need to make another equally simple and difficult decision tomorrow.