As I drove over to the Sussex League X country race in Lancing on Saturday, I was listening to a CD of Andrea Bocelli singing in Central Park. Listening to him, it seems evident that he is doing what he loves; it feels like he is giving us his gift. He practices and practices and then goes on stage and performs and allows out what is within him.
It made me think that sport is just the same, that we must practice and practice and then just go out and perform and allow what is in us out. The other competitors are there to help us get the best out of ourselves and so all of us are stretched to bigger and better expressions as we paint our picture around the fields and the road.
I have always related to Steve Prefontaine’s words;
‘Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run’.
We can only do our best, we can only run our own race, and the other people can only run theirs. If we think of our competitors as our friends, who are there to encourage and challenge us to find that we have more within us than we thought, then racing takes on an exciting quality rather than a stressful one. The response in the body is the same when ‘nervous’ or ‘excited’, therefore it can feel more positive if we think of ourselves as excited before we have to perform. This can help us to give our best and see anything that stretches us outside our comfort zone as a growthful experience, rather than a scary one.
I loved the race. I have improved so much in just four weeks since the last Sussex League. I was 14th in the race, but ‘only’ 57 seconds behind the winner. I am an eternal optimist, I am aware of how far a minute looks when we are streaming back across the fields, but to me it demonstrated how much my body is responding to training and that I am getting faster and fitter – watch out Pete Walters! – He and I have our own personal League, we are so far ‘one all’!
We met in Benidorm when I interviewed him for an article for Running Free, and the gauntlet has since been thrown. Competition stretches us; sporting challenges extend us and create the motivation to keep getting up one more time than we fall. All the time I have been injured Pete has been reminding me of our ‘race’ and that has served as part of my inspiration.
On Friday I gave a lecture for Jim, my running friend’s, third years taking a coaching degree. He asked me to come and speak for two hours about ‘Coaching the person’ and asked that I didn’t prepare, but just came and delivered.
It stretched me not to prepare anything, but then I reflected that I have been ‘practicing my art’ everyday for about 35 years, so like running a race, all I needed to do was turn up and trust that I could perform.
I loved it! We talked a lot about stretching out of our comfort zone, to stimulate learning and growth, risking failing, and rather than seeing failing as a negative thing, allowing ourselves mistakes and seeing them as a route to development and growth. When we were babies learning the challenging skills of walking and talking we didn’t get disappointed with ourselves when we made a mistake – we just tried again and eventually mastered both arts very competently!
I reminded them that we are not a lesser person if we fail or a better person when we succeed; all that is required is that we keep seeking to be ourselves and give our best, and to quote Steve Prefontaine again
‘To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.’
What have you been successful or failed at? Let us know in the comments below.
Hi Julia, great blog and very timely for me. I have not raced in a long time due to injury and because the stress I put myself under meant I didnt enjoy it anymore. If I didnt acheive a time that I thought I was capable of, or that my training times 'suggested' I shoud acheive, then I felt like a failure. I'm still struggling with injury, so not running as much as I would like, but have recently realised that a lot of those thoughts stemed from me thinking that I am not good enough to suceed. And this thought has been present through all areas of my life. The line 'we are not a lesser person if we fail or a better person when we succeed; all that is required is that we keep seeking to be ourselves and give our best' really stands out for me, because as long as I do my best in running or life in general then I am 'good enough'.
Thank you x
I believe not succeeding isn't failure, not trying something because you might not succed - that is failure.
It is a funny thing success or failure. If one was to look at a large race then only one can win it and you could argue that only one succeded and all the resthave failed. But if the one who won it had actually been going for a record and failed to break it then you could say that all did in fact fail.
I did a race last year. It was a tiny field and was a race which had the word 'challenge' in the title. There were no flat bits. When you were not going up hill, you were going down hill.
For the first time in 30 years of entering races I ended up last male. I though failure for a second but then I looked at my watch and I had come in 3 minutes quicker than my target time and instead took completing it in that time as a success.
It is not so simple as success or failure, the trick is in knowing when you have succeded and always look for the glass half full before the glass half empty.
As to that race which, turned out to be one aimed more for your serious club runner, will I enter it next year ? Most definitely and if I run it slower, will I fail ? Probably not. The other me, the one who does not want to run it because he does not want to be last male home, well I will have beaten him anyway.
This is a very inspiring blog and some of the comments it is drawing are quite profound too. I love your idea about beating the runner within who can't stand to come last dhughes2. I will never win any races and my targets are very modest - but no matter. Running is a very serious and challenging undertaking and through it we all become.....what? More than we were. For even though many of us will have achieved higher things in other areas of our lives, running is the thing that makes us great (even though we may not be great runners). I have so much admiration for everyone who runs - so much respect for all those people who pick up the gauntlet and step out on to the road.