Running is a metaphor for life.

PC: Antrim Coast Half Marathon

I realise more and more as I go through life and experience different things that the lessons you learn through running are very similar to life. Whilst it may sometimes seem like my blogs are only aimed at runners, they are actually targeted at everyone, in all walks of life. You may not run, but if you listen to the messages, you might realise there is a lot you can take away. 

Injury 

• Throughout my latest injury, I realised how injuries do in fact teach and prepare you for a lot of challenges in other aspects of life. Injury takes you back to zero, it forces you to learn lessons, look back at what went wrong, and as a result encourage you come back stronger than ever before. Similarly in life, sometimes you need to take a step back, maybe even 2 or three steps, or go right back to the bottom, and build back again in order to come back stronger. This may be in a job role, a friendship, or a personal circumstance. Like injuries, challenges in life happen for a reason, they occur to teach you something. There is no point denying these challenges, distracting yourself from their true cause, or fighting them, because they are trying to help you. They allow you to learn where you are going wrong in life and push you in the direction that will strengthen you.
  
• At the start of my injury, I was angry, upset, and in denial, I couldn’t see why it happened and it felt very unfair. However, as time went on, I began to realise, it happened for a reason, and as a result of it, I have come back a much stronger athlete, both physically and mentally. This is the same for life, when it throws you challenges, get upset, but then reflect, and look at what it’s trying to teach you and make changes with this in mind. 

Training 

• The general daily life of an athlete can be very repetitive. You do variations of the same thing, day in day out, just like being at work. However, as it requires your full bodies attention, it puts a lot of demand on your body. We are not robots, therefore, not every day you are going to feel amazing. You can bring your best that day, but it will not always be the best you are capable of. In fact, the majority of training days, you don’t feel good, because you are pushing your body to the limit on a regular basis which can be tiring. However, you keep going through the difficult days because you know they lead to the good days. You know that no matter how tough some days may feel, or however long a tough patch goes on for, the good days will eventually come. Therefore, you keep going because you know the good days make the hard days worth it. Life is just like this. It is tough, and some days feel so hard, it can feel like your goals are out of reach, but you know, good times are coming your way, and you need to trust the process. 

Racing

• There are yet more similarities between life and running, and that is in relation to racing. In a race, even though you may be running against other people and they are your competitors, ultimately, the main person you are competing against is yourself. In racing, there is no point in comparing our own performances to others, because we are all on different journeys and at different stages of them. We have all had different build ups, are at different stages of training, and have different life circumstances. This is also the same in other aspects of life, be it in work, family life, or relationships. Everyone has a different journey and different experiences that take them somewhere different to somebody else. Therefore, there is no point comparing our life progress to somebody else, because just like in running and racing, we are all on different journeys. Just stay in your own lane. 

Trust yourself.

• To me, this is one I feel holds a lot of importance. In running, coaches, physios, psychologists, friends, competitors, all have lots of invaluable knowledge and information. However, when it comes to you, no one knows you better than yourself. It is important to listen to those around you, especially those who play a key role in your journey, but if it doesn’t feel right in your gut, or you don’t quite agree with what is being said, question it. If you don’t think it is right for you, trust that instinct, because you are an expert in yourself. Similarly in life, if something doesn’t quite feel right, or it doesn’t align with your values, listen to that. Whether that be at work or in your personal life, you know when something feels a little off. 

Communication.

• Now this is key. The relationship between an athlete and their coach is very similar to the relationships we have in other walks of life when it comes to communication. If we don’t tell our coach that we’re feeling tired, something is niggling/hurting, our mind isn’t quite there today, or something is bothering us, they will never know. These are all significant factors that can impact our training, but if we bottle them up, there is no way anyone will realise these are having an effect. Sometimes we assume our coaches know what is going on, just like we assume those close to us in other aspects of life can read us, but unless we explicitly tell people, they will have no idea. Nobody in life is a mind reader, so we have to talk about what’s going on. Through communication we can strengthen other people’s understanding of a situation and allow stronger bonds to form. It also supports growth and ensures transparency, something that is key between an athlete and coach, an employer and an employee, and in a relationship. This allows us to help ourselves better and also for others to support us where needed.