I had an itch, not that kind!

I had an itch. The strap from my timing chip was tickling my ankle as a ran in the Cairngorm hills.

I was just five minutes into a trail half marathon so I wasn’t about to stop for an itchy ankle, was I.

No, of course not.

As you can imagine, it was a hilly route so my mind was quickly taken off the itch.

I was more worried about when this downhill section was going to inevitably go back up!

It did, and I forgot about the itch.

I reached the top and the terrain leveled out to amazing views across a lake surrounded by pine-covered hills. Simply stunning!

“Ah there you are, I forgot about you, you little annoying itch!”

Only now this itchy feeling is more of a scratchy sensation.?

Nothing painful, just a fecking annoying little scratch on the front of my right ankle.

Left, scratch, Left, scratch, Left, scratch.

I settled into my stride and caught my breath.

“I could stop and fix it,” I thought.

“Ah I’ll do it when I get around the next corner”

Two to three seconds of adjusting the velcro strap and the annoying AF scratch would be gone.

I got around that corner and...

“Ah fuck it, it will be fine I’ll do it later!” my internal voice shouted.

I knew a bigger hill was coming around the halfway point, and as I approached it I pushed the scratch to the back of my mind.

“Ooh, you bastard! This is a hill!”

Again, as I reached the top I settled back into my stride and got my breath back.?

There it was, waiting for me to notice it again. That annoying little niggly scratchy itch

Only now the scratch was getting worse, it was getting really painful…

This went on for the full 13.1 miles.

But I kept saying “Fuck it, it will be fine” and “I’ll sort it when I get around the next corner”.

Putting it off over and over again.

The sadistic bastards that set the route to this race had us run up another hill at the very end.?

Between the top of the hill and the finishing line, there wasn’t even time to pull yourself together for the finishing line photos!

You try smiling for the camera while you’re gasping for air and trying your hardest not to trip over your own feet on the end of legs you can’t even feel!

On the last 20 meters in, I could really feel my ankle throbbing.

I crossed the finish line, took my medal that was handed to me, and grunted back in thanks, unable to actually speak.

It was then I thought…

“Oh, I should really fix that itchy ankle now!”

It was then I realised what had happened.

>> The itch I ignored…turned into a scratch…

>> The scratch I ignored…turned into a slightly painful scratch…

>> The slightly painful scratch I ignored…turned into a constant painful rubbing…

>> The constant painful rubbing I ignored…turned into a painful friction burn...?

>> The painful friction burn I ignored…turned into a bloody cut.

For the sake of about 3 seconds of adjusting my ankle strap, I now had a painful bloody cut and burn that will take weeks to heal and probably scar in some way.

Why am I rambling on about this?

Well, listen in, because this is the perfect analogy for you and your health!

When you know you should be doing something to fix a problem…

DO NOT PUT IT OFF!

Take action, do something about it.

Because if you don’t…

The longer you leave it…the longer it will take to fix!

Don’t get me wrong, this is not a life-changing injury haha, far from it!

But for the sake of literally three seconds of fixing the strap…

It will take weeks to heal and probably leave its mark forever.

It’s EXACTLY the same with your health.

Regardless of what area that it’s in, Nutrition, Body or Mind

The longer you take to fix it…

>> The longer it will take to be fixed,?

>> The harder it will be to fix,?

>> The more likely it is to leave a permanent mark behind.

What metaphoric itch do you have?

What action can you take today to stop it getting worse?