Lessons From Running, 'EX' or 'RE'

Today’s Leadership Learning is about ‘Self Leadership’, and this comes from a very personal sphere, an area that has taught me a great deal of lessons that can be applied both on the personal and the professional front…This is ONE OF MY MANY Learnings through my experiences with running. As I begin writing this, I think it might be a long one (just like my running distance preference), so please bear with me.

I will not get into how I started running (that may be a topic of another post) but will just say that I have been running for many years now and have done a few 10Ks, Halves, Full and Ultra Marathons and have spent many many hours training for these races.

As an amateur, recreational runner everything has generally been under control while I am training for these races . On most occasions I have detailed training plans that I try to stick to and if, whenever I falter, I make it a point to make up for it at the earliest possible opportunity. A couple of weeks before any big race with the heavy training behind you, you have a fair sense of the shape you are in and that’s when you go about setting a more specific target for yourself. Depending on how brave one feels the target is that much more specific and stretched, some even braver ones will go ahead and announce their targets out to friends or post them on social media etc….I am not one of those ??. I like to position my running as fun and hence there is no targets that I talk about (‘Talk about’ being the key words). Internally yes, I do have targets, I have trained to be able to meet the target, yes there are variables, a hundred things could go wrong, and you’ve thought of all of them as well in your head. The weather could play spoil sport, the hydration and nutrition support may not be upto the mark, you may not have slept well the prev night, you couldn’t get into the start line on time etc. So you have, so to speak, trained for the best, prepared for the worst and will take what comes.

In my experience with Full Marathons (42.195 KMs), most races have followed a particular broad pattern. When the buzzer goes off and the flag is waived the race starts and off you go, the josh is high. Most people start running either too fast or too slow depending on where they are in the starting line, some eager to get ahead or others still taking selfies. After a couple of KMs is when the dust sort of settles and most runners find their rhythm and their groups, I like to run alone. The Rhythm for most (as is for me) is smooth for the first half of the race, and then, again for most (Unless you are Kipchoge and his gang), starts to falter every now and then after the 25th odd KM, runs become Jogs and jogs are interspersed with drink walks…And around the 32 KM mark is when runners hit the so called ‘WALL’, this is the point when a runner's glycogen within the muscles is depleted. From hereon it is the mind that carries you through. The Mind decides who will finish or not, who will finish but may not within their target and who will meet or beat their target. If you are a finisher, you will most likely raise your hands and push your chest into the imaginary ribbon at the finish line and be patted on the back by the crowd or runners, volunteers and audience till you with your hands on your knees are able to make your way to the place the medals are given out. Then you find some drinks and food counter and maybe a mat where a physio can give you a much-needed stretch and massage. The happy chemicals released during or after the run, or in a lot of cases, consumed during the post run celebration carry you back. You have a nice shower and then with a smile on your face and your medal close by, or even still around your neck you pass out already dreaming of the next marathon.

So, what is the Learning you might ask. The biggest learning for me has happened in each and every race. After the 25th Km, that’s where the discomfort starts, energy supply is low, the prospect of a break is very enticing, it suddenly feels like the weather is too hot or too cold… isn’t it? You ask yourself. If YOU have asked yourself the question, the other YOU must answer. The bigger question however is which YOU will answer? ONE YOU (Let’s call this YOU ‘EX’ agrees that it is too hot to continue and there is no point in risking it, after all its only a fun run, everyone gets the same medal, it’s not like you have told anyone about your target, so why put yourself through this discomfort? Or the OTHER YOU (Let’s call it ‘RE’) that knows the hard work you have put in and what meeting your target will mean to you, not to anyone else but to you. ‘EX’ and ‘RE’ know you very well, they know what it will take to convince you to stop or to keep you going, who do you feed and who do listen to.

During this conversation with ‘EX’ you realize you are the hardest to Motivate coz ‘EX’ knows you the best and knows what to tell you to convince you that this pain you are putting yourself through is not worth it. Then on the other hand ‘RE’ also knows you the best, so ‘RE’ also knows what to say to you to convince you to bear the pain, put in the hard work and get to the finish.

You also realize that you are not really an ‘Individual’, coz Individual means not divisible, yet here you are all divided, over every goal, every thought and trying to convince a divided part of you.

There are days where the ‘EX’ part of me wins and some days the ‘RE’ does. What I try to be aware of is of ‘EX’ and ‘RE’ be it while running or working or any difficult situation in my life I try to focus more on ‘The ‘RE’asons to do’ rather than ‘The ‘EX’cuses not to’. As long as the score stays positive on ‘RE’s side I think it’s a positive trajectory.

?Do let me know what your thoughts on this are, does this make any sense to you? Specially if you are not a runner? Would you be interested in more #leasonsfromRunning

#Leadershiplessons #leadingyourself #Selfleadership?        

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