Marathon Training Takes Courage
Have you ever felt that you’re in over your head? That taking on a full marathon, or faster times, or any massive endurance challenge was more than you could handle? You start to doubt your abilities and just pray for this endeavor to end already.
Well stop it. You’re not alone in this thinking, but you’ve likely got it all wrong. You’re stronger than you realize, and you proved it before you even started.
Marathons are a challenge. When you signed up, you faced the guarantee of a challenge ahead. To face adversity takes courage. To train for a marathon takes constant courage.
What is courage?
“Courage is the ability to be fully present in adversity.”
This I first heard from Jim Murphy’s book Inner Excellence. And it was incredibly motivating as someone training for and coaching long distance endurance events every single day. Most any fitness endeavor, especially endurance training guarantees adversity daily.
If you’re present in your training, you’re present in adversity.
We have to wake up early, or stay up late. We have to coordinate or schedule family time and support. We have hot days and rainy days. Hill repeats and tempo runs. Long runs on a Saturday morning when everyone else is at brunch or in their PJs at home. Social outings that we leave early or miss entirely. Sore bodies, tired minds. The grind, as they say, doesn’t stop.
Marathon training isn’t easy.
Our brains tell us to quit every day, and our muscles scream at us to slow down. Our joints ache, our feet hurt, and our brains get cloudy.
Every day there’s adversity in front of us. Every day, we grapple with and engage with failure and the idea of failure.
And there is no guarantee in our training or our racing, except for adversity.
Marathon training is adversity.
Adversity builds strength
You have no choice but to face it daily. Some days it may feel like no big deal. Others, it’s a battle.
The outcome doesn’t matter. To face it and embrace it takes all the courage you need. Courage, when recognized, creates growth.
You don’t need to have run the marathon to be anything different. By committing to your training, you’ve already done the hardest part. You’ve already shown more courage than so many others. To continue with the process when everything around you is encouraging you to stop, takes courage that many lack.
When the toughest runs, and the hottest days, and greatest fatigue feels like it could never get worse, all you need to do is acknowledge that. Recognize the partner in this dance of training. The adversity is there to bring out your greatest version of yourself. Engage with it. How that dance finishes isn’t what’s important if you’ve allowed yourself to be present, fully present, in that relationship with adversity. You just need to move your feet, and dance.
It’s the process that creates the result. And that process doesn’t begin until you make the choice to be present. And your presence proves the courage you need to succeed. Face adversity, and you’ve already won.
Where can you find your courage in your training?
Get stronger
If you want an even easier approach to improved performance, please schedule a complimentary consulation!
To understand more of what to look for in a good coach, read more.
Happy running!
