*The Debatewise Blog
What running has taught me – part 1
Patience is not one of my more prominent qualities. In fact, the very act of pacing myself has always been something of an intangible concept. I understand the idea okay, it’s implementing it I have the problem with.Running is different though. If you launch off too fast you’ll exhaust yourself; that’s why people hit the wall. So when I ran my first ever race yesterday, a half-marathon in Brighton, I knew pacing was key. The problem is, this meant starting slowly and being overtaken by just about every single bloody other person in the race, including, gallingly, four men in full ostrich costume.
Fortunately, I restrained my competitive instincts and stuck to the plan. The shame of being overtaken was soon replaced by the joy of overtaking others. I ran fast up the final two hills and finished with a burst of speed that had me signing the Chariots of Fire tune in
my head, at least I hope it was in my head. Anyway, I had a target time of under two hours and in the end I ran the 13.1 miles in 1:53:55.
So here’s my point. Modern culture is so youth obsessed there’s a tendency to feel that if we haven’t had great success by 30 we’ll never make it. Or that even if we’ve experienced success early on, by the time we hit our 40s our best days are behind us.
Running has taught me that’s bollocks. That we sometimes feel as though we’re falling behind when in reality we’re just saving ourselves for later. That we need to find our own pace and ignore other people going faster or more slowly. And primarily, that it’s not important how you start, it’s important how you finish.