Doing something at your limit

I had occasion to think back to 2010/2011 which was a very happy and content period of my life. Kids were young and lots of fun, work was exciting and I was trying to complete the Bob Graham Round in under 24 hours. I managed it on my 3rd attempt, which as I am not a natural running, is OK. I was at the absolute edge of my physical and mental limts. What useful did I learn?

1. There is always someone better and more extreme than you. In my case the most obvious was Jim Mann who in the scheme of things was quite good at running over mountains. That people are better than you does not deminish your personal achievement one little bit. Jim Mann was my more ardent supporter even though we were at the other ends of the scale of ability.
2. Visualisation really works. I used to lie in bed for the 6 months before the successful attempt and do the Bob Graham round in my mind for 5 minutes every night before going to sleep. Each night I was successful. This mean that when the day came, I believed I could do it. Each night I would imaging running up Keswick high street holding the kids hands, during the round that vision kept me going.
3. Excellence is doing the boring stuff really well. This is my favorite cybersecrity phrase at the moment when applied to the boring parts of running a complex computer system, patching, removing expired users and the list of minor stuff goes on. During the BG it was food, navigation details, pacers, road crossing logistics, socks, having a ipod (yes that long ago) where it could be found, etc, etc. Pay attention to the small boring stuff if you want to achieve a major objective.
4. Big challanges mess with your mind. Focus on the next section, In the case of the Bob Graham Round, it means the top of the next hill. Thinking further messes with your head. Untill you have a small number left, don't let yourself think about the scale task ahead once you have set off.
5. On leg 4, I was not in a great state on the successful attempt. However I had Dave the Policeman from Bradford as a pacer. He had just the right outlook and attitiude of gentle encouragement until I perked up and then did the best running of my life. If you are doing something hard, think about having the right person for the situation with you. The previous attempt I had the wrong person(for that moment, my weakness not theirs) with me on that leg and I dropped out. The Bob Graham found a mental weakness and explioted it. One leg 5 (last leg) I had my wondeful climbing partner Tim Hoskin pace. He had lent me the book, Feet in the Clouds, which was the start of my Bob Graham journey. Its was so important he was there to see it completed and the right character for the moment as well.
6. The experiences and mates you are left with are as important as the day, If I see one of the pacers or people who I paced on their rounds, even if I have not seen them for 5 years, within 30 seconds the bond is restabished. Nothing binds people like a bit of shared self imposed suffering.
7. Listen to you body after the event. I have not been able to run at the same level since. I took myself to my absolute limit to do the Bob Graham Round. My body told my brain that it needed a rest and I am not determined enough to overcome that (good thing in hindsight) so I stopped training and did other things. I still love being in mountains and running in mountains, but I am a 2 hours runner now, not a 24 hours runner, even 13 years on. If I had not listened to my body, I suspect it would have responded with a fatigue illness.
8. If you fail at something, have a good hard think about why you really failed. I failed on attempt one because I was not fit enough and experinced enough. I was never going to be successful on the 1st attempt, but I had to do it for the experience. I failed on attempt 2 because I externalised blame when things got hard. that is pretty hard to admit to yourself. I sorted that part of my head out and it was the major reason I was successful on attempt 3.

I am sure there are more lessons. I found it really useful to talk through other finishers experiences before my own attempts. There are a few great blogs out there, but I am out of that world now and have been for some years.

If you whan to google what the Bob Graham round is, fine. I won't describe it here. There are people who have done double and trebble BG's and done it a lot faster than my 23.34 time.

I am still very proud to be number 1707 of the worlds most understated club.