Going the Distance

What does it take in one's personal or professional life to do something all the way, you know stretch out the mind and our desire to really "go for it"? One thing it takes for sure, for example, when launching a start-up or running a marathon is endurance. Because in this life, pain is mandatory. Pain quite literally is entirely about change. It is about how we respond to unexpected circumstances that come with the unknown. It requires remarkable amounts of perseverance and demands that our patience be tested and our methods be true. The usual suspects are so often introduced at the moment of pain's arrival - our lizard brain is very quick with the excuses as to why and how we should avoid pain. When it comes to starting a new venture and running, it whispers and often screams something such common excuses:

"This is going to be VERY costly (in time, money). And it's going to be really painful - maybe we just sit this out, ok?!"

OR

"I don't run: running is not pleasurable." OR " I am SO not a runner."

"I couldn't even run around the block without my knees or lungs screaming at me where my couch is!"

I have set my sights once again on a mountain-load of pain and will be running my next marathon this April in London. So the topic of pain comes up often when talking with others about my goal. How do you get past all the pain, Chris? I often share my story of the first marathon I ran in Washington D.C., "just" ticking off a box on my bucket list. It seemed achievable enough. And it was, that is, until a U.S. Marine put that medal around my neck after four hours of hobbling through hell and back. That was the moment everything changed for me on this journey. The experience caused me to weep like a child (in joy).

For me running is as much about peace of mind, meditation even, as it is about health and physical fitness. I run because, without it, I would not function physically nor mentally. Like my other addiction, food, I just cannot get enough. I love food. And this love is only multiplied by my love of cooking (which is just another way to EAT more food -- before the consumption-fest at the table). Naturally, eating is ever so deliciously accented by a great bottle of wine. So without this call from my booties (aka "running shoes") or the ache in my shoulders and lower back 'calling me to church:' my lack of running would have me as physically unfit as a lazy, bloated water buffalo (no offence to water buffalos). Mentally, running is the special key, perfectly slotted for the keyhole that unlocks all sorts of benefits and secrets to how my body runs/works. I am able to do conflict resolution, or replay unfavorable outcomes in my head while running to reach my next move, step or destination. My body can endure many a pain, if my mind is fit, sharp as a knife, and prepared to compensate for the unexpected. However it is my mind's piercing focus, like a cold shower, where running becomes my addiction with every foot fall on dirt, and on pavement. I can never get enough of it. It is my way to enter inside of me where "today-me" competes with "yesterday-me." It is the decision to look myself in the eye and confront all that displeases me; to shake loose the barnacles and shady cobwebs. Letting go the pain I have ignored too long about a decision I should benefited from long ago.

Running is the largest participation sport in the world with over 100 million recreational runners registered in the US and Europe alone. The majority of this population have started running with the intention of improving their levels of health and fitness but unfortunately the health and fitness benefits of running come at a price as injury rates are extraordinarily high in runners (more than 1 in 3 runners report a running related pain or injury whilst preparing to enter a half or full marathon).

Pain: 100% Natural?

In college, I stumbled upon a superb salsa called "Pain Is Good" which called for many a bottle of beer* to enjoy the flames in my mouth due to the Scotch Bonnet Peppers and Serrano peppers used in making this magical elixir. As a huge fan of Mexican food (cooking it too), experimenting with the spices of life was more than a hobby, it was my adventure (ask me about my camping adventure with jalape?o peppers and 'Huevos Rancheros' sometime). Whether we choose a pain in life or the pain that doesn't ask us first, pain is a part of life. In running, pain is a show-stopper. It comes like a dagger from behind: unexpected, crippling and often continual so that you not only stop what you are doing, but literally get off your feet and heal thyself. I have run in many a shoe that are out there: Nike, Brooks, NB, Asics, however it was always the nutrition I ate prior to running, and the mental rituals that set the pace and expectation of the outcome. What is 100% obvious after running eight marathons, one quarter triathlon and countless 10Ks: the mind must 100% be prepared for the challenge if the body is expected to not just follow, but perform. The comfort of success lies firstly in the mind. For it is the mind that must deal with 'The Wall' that comes every time for each one of us, between miles 22 and 26, who are foolish enough to enter the continuum between the mind and the body and discover the spirit you were born to run with.

* FYI - drinking beer to try to put out the heat on my tongue was more about pleasure -- TIP: drink milk or put sugar in your mouth if you should have have so much fire in your mouth from eating spice-hot salsa.

Pain-free Running Begins in the Foot

Humans are born to run. When we are fortunate, we are born with fully functional, foot-shaped feet to move us to where our heart's desire leads us. Like a tree, whose roots hold it strong and true in the windiest of storms, our feet are important to how we stand our ground, the way we communicate; how we move and ultimately push ourselves beyond every challenge we put on our bucket lists. 'One day,' we tell ourselves. And then, that one day arrives as a cold, piercing mirror which demands from us to answer convincingly: yes I can. For me, running is personal. One of my toes is bent under another of my toes from baby shoes that were too small for me when I started growing. So I know: non-foot-shaped shoes can forever alter how our adult feet function. Whether you take 2500 or 10,000 steps a day, feet are vitally important to functioning both in the board room and on the dirt trail to deliver success, well being, and to go further than we once thought even possible. In that great pro-running movie "Forrest Gump"... Lieutenant Dan had it right: 'There is one thing that will keep you alive here...keep good care of your feet!'

And lest we disregard the significance that our feet play in our success as a person or entire societies, consider this...When you consider that on average a human being lives to an average age of 70. Over the course of their lives people take approximately 68,955,000 steps. For those of us who run, and might be fortunate enough to live to the age of 95, the amount of steps one takes is more like 90-100,000,00 steps. That is not only form and function: it was quite literally a physical and moving form of art, creative expression and bold acts of beauty. As Da Vinci, who had a huge foot fetish, once said: "the human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art." Healthy feet are necessary for us to move out of danger or propel us through our most significant accomplishments and achieve that which once was the impossible, that is, until we stood up to do something about it.

I'm encouraged that on the open road still calls me to bear witness to my art form. I am addicted to it. To running to remind me of where my potential meets my freedom. For some addictions are good, very good, and move us forward into the undiscovered truths that living boldly expects from each one of us.