3 Running Tips that Apply to Life
Run your race with grace
I grew up in a family of runners. Every year in May, my sister and I would sleep over at Nana and Grandad’s and watch Mom and Dad running the Indy 500 Mini Marathon on the local news. It was great.
I would ride my bike alongside my parents as they trained for their events. The “Moe’s Route,” a five-mile loop to the local Moe’s Southwest Grill and back, it’s something I can still trace turn by turn in my mind.
In school, I joined the cross-country team, and I learned a lot about form and methods for success. I still use some of those tricks today, But I have found that they have been bleeding into other facets of my life. I thought I would share.
#1 Eyes Up
In running, it’s hard to keep your mind in the right spot, staying focused on the positive, blocking out the pain, and accepting the slow progress for what it is, is a hard needle to thread. A key here is keeping your eyes up. Look ahead fifty yards, even if you are running with rough terrain underfoot, keep your eyes up and out towards your next checkpoint.
The same can happen in normal life. Achieving goals is an endurance challenge. Staying optimistic in the face of constant challenges and obstacles is a hard state of mind to manage. If you don’t keep your eyes up, you run the risk of losing your bearings, and your goal. Don’t let little setbacks or the pain of your current situation distract you from what matters, keep the pain in the back of your brain and focus on progressing towards the objective.
#2 Longer Stride
Have you ever been driving and passed a runner with laughable form? I like it when they look like a T-rex, or when their knees look like they are held together by laffy taffy. In running, form is everything, if you have a laughable form then odds are you’re either very new or you aren’t running far. I like to remind myself when I’m running to “drop my hands.” when you lower your hands your stride automatically becomes longer. A longer stride helps you cover more distance and conserve more energy. But to do so you have to trust your body, trust that you will be able to maintain a longer stride and a faster pace. Have faith in your ability.
Likewise, have faith in your abilities elsewhere in life. You have the power to do some amazing things, but so many of us get caught up trying to be like someone else or copy an already proven path to success that we are missing the power of our inherent strength. We have to trust in our abilities and make sure that we are running our race, not someone else’s. Trust in your preparation and strengths, tune out the doubters and the critics, and run a race that was built bespoke for you.
#3 Right Music, Right Team
Running is a cruel and unusual activity without music. Music is one of the key tools to mitigating pain and helping you to zone out in a long race. I love it when I get lost in a long Billy Joel song while I’m running like Scenes from an Italian Restaurant and knock out almost a full mile without knowing or feeling it. Music Matters. If you don’t have the right tunes then it only amplifies the pain felt. Running playlists are carefully curated and crafted to maximize energy and minimize discomfort. It also matters who you run with. Sometimes running alone is good, but if you run with someone who is just slightly faster, you will be impressed by how much that pushes you to try to keep up.
The only way to get better at something is to practice with people better than you.
Synonymously, we must carefully examine who and what we consume. Human beings are absorbent, it’s in our nature and we can’t control it. It is said that we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. Are those people getting me closer to a better version of myself? Is the content I consume helping me to understand and create the world that I want to live and thrive in? Are the people around me mitigating my pain or multiplying it?
I like to run half marathons, I’m not a try-hard, it usually takes me about 2 hours to complete. But those 2 hours and a lot of training beforehand give me time to be alone with my thoughts and critically think about goals and aspirations, as well as the success-to-pain ratio. Is this pain worth the success? If not, what can I change to lessen the pain I feel? I found myself using the same internal dialogue whether I’m running or working towards goals. Life is an endurance race, the more you can endure, the higher your potential for happiness and success you have.
