Keep pushing
I’ll spare the gory details of my latest run and instead, I’ll share a transcript I’ve taken from the latest issue of Runners World:
We runners are no strangers to pain. It is etched on to our faces as we strive to reach the finish line first, beat our fastest time or complete the final rep of a punishing set. It’s the hammering of a maxed-out heart, the numb throb of tired muscles, the string of skin rubbed raw by blisters on a long run. It’s the fire in your lungs fit to burst as you suck in air on the home straight, with your rival clipping your heels.
But we don’t see pain as a reason to give up – it is simply something that needs to be borne for a while in order for us to achieve our goals. And it is this mindset that sets us apart from the majority of the population. It allows us to stray outside our comfort zones without fear; confident not only that we’ll survive, but that we’ll come back stronger.
Nothing could portray this better than former stuntman Eddie Kidd’s successful completion of the London Marathon in June. Having ditched his wheelchair at the start, every agonising step he took over those 50 days demonstrated that pain, hardship and discomfort are somtimes necessary bedfellows. Or think of comedian Eddize Izzard’s feat – no experience and five weeks of training to run 43 marathons in 51 days.
As legendary running coach Percy Cerutty once said, “You only ever grow as a human being when you’re outside your comfort zone.” I wonder, though, is it only people with boundless self-belief and a willingness to endure self-inflcited torture that fall into the sport in the first place? Or does running itself bestow us with a sense of invincibility?
Many runners I meet as complete beginners are nervous and tentative at the start, not quite believing that they’ll be able to manage even a single session. Weeks or months later, they run a mile without stopping or cross their first finish line and taste delight in having proved themselves wrong. And that opens up a whole world of possibilities. What else can I do that I didn’t think I could? they wonder. Speak in public? Quit my dead-end job? Do a parachute jump? Whatever goal they set their sights on, the chances are they’ll be able to rise to the challenge.
In a study published in The Journal of Leisure Research, fit people coped better with a series of white-knuckle tasks including white-water rafting and rope work than unfit people, experiencing less stress and greater confidence.
And the beauty of it is that once you do start to push your boundaries, your capacity to do so actually increases. Research that dates back 20 years found that runners could endure extreme cold and loud noise better than non-runners. More recently, research from the University of Bonn, Germany, suggests that runners experience enhanced pain tolerance as a result of increased levels of endorphins. It’s almost as if we’re being rewarded for having the guts to work hard.
But you have to be willing to take that leap of faith in the first place, and perhaps taht’s where character plays a part. A friend once overheard a woman at her local gym reporting to an instructor that she had started to sweat and get out of breath on the exercise bike. “Could there be something wrong?” she asked in a concerned voice. I don’t know what happened next, but I’m willing to speculate: she didn’t ever go back. In fact, when she broke a sweat walking to the train station, she decided to drive in future. When she got breathless climbing stairs, she resolved to stick to lifts and escalators. The less she did, the less she was able to do and, in vicious concentric circles, her comfort zone closed in around her. In my experience, this is not the type of person who makes a runner.
To quote Cerutty again, “Hard things take time to do. Impossible things take a little longer.” Such an attitude helped Cerutty’s most famous protégé, Herb Elliot, break multiple world records. It helped both Eddies reach their respective finish lines. It can help you, too.
- Courtesy of Runners World UK September 2011
