Lessons Learnt

Lessons learnt

You may have noticed that I haven’t been posting any blogs for a while.  You see, I’ve been a bit busy following an amazing woman around the country as she ran 63 marathons in 63 days!

Llyn Cwm Llwch as we headed up Pen-y-Fan

The return to reality wasn’t quite as smooth as we perhaps thought it might be.  The suddenness of not knowing exactly what was going to happen every day (“What, no marathon??”), the post-adventure hangover (“oh, that thing I’ve been thinking about for the last 7 years is done now?”), the physical recovery, financial issues, they all hit us.  Some became apparent quicker than others, but the 9 weeks after the 63 marathons in 63 days finished were almost as challenging as the 9 weeks of the marathons.

So, now my excuse for not posting blogs has been said, I had a lot of time to think while cycling, running, and driving, with Nikki Love, or sat at my desk trying to work out where she was, and lucky for you I forgot most of it! 

Marathon 1 John o'Groats -
As North as I've ever been!

However, I noted a few of the thoughts down and will try formulate them into posts over the next few weeks.  They may not be in chronological order, and they may be mixed in with other posts, but I’ll try and highlight stuff that came about during the epic 63 marathon in 63 days adventure J

During those 63 days I learnt a few things about myself, what I’m capable of, and about some of the preconceived ideas that I have about things, those things being mainly running.  So, I’ve started changing my attitude to running.

Sharif’s Rules When Running

I used to have some rules for when I ran.  I think I’ve told you them before:

1. Finish

2. Don’t stop

      3. Don’t come last

I made these rules up when I started running.  And I have stuck to them.  But things changed after I met Nikki and started training with her occasionally. 

When I met Nikki and she talked about her marathons, I couldn’t get my head around it.  My idea of a marathon, or any long run, was that you continuously ran.  This is actually why I had never progressed with my running as, I now realise that, I had a huge fear of failure of not being able to continuously run the distance I had planned.  Fear that I wouldn’t be able to run 15 miles, for example.  But when I started training with Nikki I realised it was OK to stop, to eat, to drink, to take a break, and then carry on.  Your long run is all about time on your feet, and this is the important factor, not the continuousness of your running (please note that this is different from other training sessions, such as tempo runs.  I’m only referring to long run type sessions).  She told me about someone she had coached to do a sub 3 hour marathon and he would stop every 10k to stretch!

It’s OK to stop.  Rule 2 got crossed off the list.

I always had a thing that I didn’t want to come last.  In anything.  It wasn’t that I was that competitive, more that I didn’t want that stigma of being last.  Not sure where it stemmed from, and I can’t tell you some horrific story of being picked on or something, just that I don’t want to come last.  So, every race I ran I made sure I wasn’t the slowest.  To be fair, I’m an average runner so this wasn’t really an issue.

That changed in Sheffield, on marathon 21.  We had planned to run the Sheffield Castle parkrun, before continuing on and running along the canal to Rotherham and back (I’ll tell you how wonderful that was another day!!!).  However, as sometimes happens with us, we were running late and turned up at the Parkrun start about 6 or 7 minutes behind everyone.  Now as you’ll all know, Nikki didn’t run her marathons fast (she had 63 to do, what do you expect???), and because of this we didn’t really make any ground on the back markers.  We got passed by most of the runners, mind you, but the hi-vis jackets of the tail runners just wouldn’t come into sight!  That was until the final stretch toward the finish!  There they were, strolling along up the hill with some of the signs! 

“Yes, I won’t come last! “, I thought happily.

And then Nikki said that she needed to “go”. 

You finish, she said.  Don’t wait for me, she said, as she went off into the bushes.  But I couldn’t leave her.  I didn’t want to. 

And in that moment I realised, it really doesn’t matter if I come last or not.  Who cares?  I’ve still completed Rule 1, and no one can take that away from you. 

And so I waited for Nikki to do her thing, watching the Tail runners walk off into the distance (although I think they were wondering what we were doing back there!!).

Nikki finished what she was doing and we jogged to the finish where I slowed my pace so Nikki could finish ahead of me, to some applause from the volunteers and some runners who had hung on (our friend Ruth had been telling everyone what Nikki was doing and so had drummed up some support!).

And that was that.  The first time I can remember coming last in a race.  And you know what?  I smiled.  I smiled when I thought about what I had done, and the change I had made in my thinking to do it.

It’s OK to come last.  Rule 3 got crossed off the list.

And so, Sharif’s Rules When Running are now:

1. Finish 

2. Don’t’ stop

3. Don’t come last