I completed the Boston marathon this week. I ran with an
injury and had the joy of shivering my way through four and half hours of rain
whilst been over taken by 10,000 other runners.
I have come home and due to a
(new) foot injury I am unable to walk more than a few feet. But, I have a medal
and I ran the Boston Marathon—the mecca of the amateur marathon runner.
However, I look back and I can’t help but feel there is a moral
to this story; lessons learned.
I qualified last May and smiled for two weeks and started to
plan my domination of Boston—or at least the dream of a new PB (personal best).
July arrived and a mysterious sore heel. I hobbled through three weeks awaiting
for scan to find out I had a stress fracture. I then slipped on a boot cast for
eight weeks, followed by a month of slow rehab and in November, I ran four painful
kilometres.
I needed a new plan.
I started slowly building up the mileage; slow, hard and
painful. I got to January and I was still trying to complete both a half marathon
and a run where my plantar fasciitis (a result of my immobility over the summer)
did not plague me. Just as I became worried, I had a break through, a pain free
run. I quickly followed that up with a half marathon and things started to fall
into place toward the end of January. I ran a half marathon in ninety-six minutes
and suddenly a PB seemed an outside possibility again. A week later, my back
gave out. I missed nearly three weeks of training.
I needed a new plan.
Even when my back was better, I had to be careful with it. I
eased back on my training and stopped any focus on speed and start a do a
run\walk regimen to try and drag my mileage up—I was still floundering around
21 kilometres as we moved through February and into March. I got up to thirty
kilometres with one run\walk (10 minutes running and one minute walking) when disaster
struck; I got a chest infection.
I needed a new plan.
I had to stop for two weeks as a fought the infection and I
started to have my first thought of pulling out. I start running again but the
chest infection had ripped away all my lung capacity and my run\walk plan had
become a more walk than a run. Then with three weeks left, my back gave out
again.
I needed a new plan.
No, the days of plans had gone. I had to make a decision,
was I going or not. My friends and
family rallied around me and I decided to go. No further training or planning.
The day came and, hyped up on pain killers, I stepped out
into the cold and torrential rain and started the Boston Marathon with one goal—finish!
Four and half hours later and in a considerable amount of pain, I received my finisher’s
medal, coming in at 22,429th position.
So, what are the lessons learnt:
1. Make a plan but don’t be inflexible let the plan
breathe and change with circumstances.
2. Be positive and keep moving forward.
3. Review your goals and make sure they are realistic. It helped when I changed my goal from a PB, to competing, to finishing.
4. Expect things not to go to plan and roll with it. I did more rolling than a ball down the hills of
San Francisco.
5. Don’t do it alone. I had help from my family and big hugs. A
physiotherapist, massage therapists (who was amazing), and a chiropractor for the
physical wellbeing of my body. Friends who pushed and encouraged me and brought
me a beer now and then.
6. Never give up. I smiled through the pain, once I held my medal.
7. Adversity makes for greatness. The harder something is to achieve,
the better the feeling when you accomplish it.
