Chasing A Dream

I believe most amazing accomplishments came off the back of a chance conversation or occurrence, sometimes after a couple of drinks, than from deliberate intention.

It was never my intention to run a marathon this year. I thought signing up to a Half Ironman distance event was going to be big enough but a chance conversation with a friend in a supermarket a couple of weeks ago inspired me to sign up to the Malaga marathon in November, feels like it's leading me on a completely different path from the one I had planned to follow and it has the potential to be a very exciting journey indeed!

More Than A Marathon

This is NOT just about running 26.2 miles.

It feels different.

It feels like I'm chasing a dream.

The spontaneity of it all feels a bit like how entering marathons used to feel for me years ago, when I first started out. Committing to an event months from now that feels somewhat beyond my current capabilities in the knowledge that I need to put the work in to be ready for race day.

Crossing the finish line of the 1998 London Marathon, the race that changed my life

It feels a bit like when I entered my first marathon, in London, in 1997 at a time when I was signed off work with back pain and prescribed strong painkillers. I saw it as the perfect target then got an even greater shock a couple of months later when I was accepted then had to start running!

The whole experience of that event and the sense of accomplishment I felt when I crossed the finish line totally changed my life and inspired me to quit my job, become a Personal Trainer and help other people do amazing things for themselves and feel the same way I felt.

Nothing Else Matters

One of the reasons this event appeals to me is that I love committing to do something and work out how to do it as I go. When I think about a lot of the best things I've done, this has been my approach.

The more I think about it, the more I believe I've caught myself in the trap of listening to too many gurus, do what I think I should be doing based on seeking external validation rather than do what I want to do.

When I've signed up for marathons in the past, my mindset has always been that the event is the main focus and nothing else matters. I could easily say no to things, stop drinking, stop going out etc as I was now in marathon training mode and it didn't bother me in any way as I was working towards a higher purpose.

I didn't fit my training runs around work or life. I fitted work and life around my training.

The Malaga marathon, and the other events I've signed up for between now and November, feels like this is what I'm needing to return to doing.

Becoming My Best

What's interesting is that signing up to the Malaga marathon is NOT built around a performance target. That was my target for the Loch Ness marathon last year and I became so consumed by the time I was aiming for that I became complacent with my training and ended up not running the race.

This race feels different. I feel I want to run at my best this year and when I do that, everything will be possible.

Becoming my best reminds me of what I felt I wanted to do when I turned 50 back in 2020 but didn't really go anywhere with it as I couldn't pinpoint a meaning back then.

Now I do.

I'm always inspired by the people who do amazing things at an older age and believe people around my age are capable of way more than they think and by making a conscious decision to change now, we could all be doing these amazing things as we age.

The thing is, it's NOT about following a diet, a trendy workout, a blueprint or whatever kind of gimmick we're being sold on social media. This is about making a conscious decision to make a series of little changes, create a series of new positive habits in order to create a better life for ourselves as we get older so we can do all the things that inspire us and keep doing them for as long as possible.

And so, the journey begins. This is a journey of discovery and I feel excited about all the possibilities that lie ahead.

I want the whole journey to feel like playing, where there are no preset boundaries, I find what works for me (as it should do for each of us), create my own framework rather than following someone else's and create my own story of what I did and how I did it which, ironically, is what I've encouraged my clients to do for years.

Now it's my turn.

When was the last time you committed to doing something totally outside your comfort zone and what happened?