Running Towards 50: Overcoming Self-Doubt with a 5K Challenge

Running From Self Doubt?

In June, I posted this on social:

In high school track, I told myself I was a terrible runner.

In university, I told myself I only ran to manage my weight.

In my twenties, I told myself I didn’t have time.

In my thirties, I told myself I was too old to run.

In my forties, I am telling myself I will run a 5k before I am 50 because I am sick of telling myself what I cannot do.

I started small. With compassion and care. That was last month.

Now, I am accelerating with the gear and the tenacity.

What have you stopped telling yourself you cannot do?

You poured out your support. And you shared what you, too, are doing to take back control of your narrative.?

Running To Prove Something

So, to pick up the story from June, here I am, running and getting ready for that 5K. Some days, blowing the cobwebs off of a long day at my desk is just the thing. On other days, the stifling heat, competing demands, and fatigue make it too big a grind to lace up.

In fact, two weekends ago, when I pushed myself in the heat, with little sleep and my legs feeling like they were made of lead, I rolled my foot. I was gifted with a life lesson about the need to check in with myself rather than race headfirst into a goal. It’s not about the goal, friends. It’s about overcoming the limiting beliefs that rigid goals can create; it was a worthy reflection as I sat there with my elevated, iced, bruised foot.

Do you know what wasn’t bruised, though? My ego. That was the whole point of this, right??

The focus is on overcoming self doubt and running toward self compassion.?

Ironically, the achievement of all of this isn’t actually crossing the finish line of the 5k. It isn’t the fundraising I’ve decided to align with my 5K (The Terry Fox Run ). It is to prove to myself that I can and will unwind 40 years of telling myself what I am incapable of.

The discomfort of having that limited mindset is way more uncomfortable than heat, hunger, or fatigue (as long as I’m safe). And it’s also why I don’t have to achieve a certain “time” to be worthy of feeling success.

I am sick of being “right” about my limits. I am ready to be wrong. Oh, am I ever ready.

The Runner’s High

There is this concept of the runner’s high. Believe me, in my past evolutions of running (notice I didn’t say “as a runner”…it was never my identity), there was no high. There were lots of low, low, low moments. (Check out my episode with Simonne about the trap of comparison .)

Looking back, I realize it was a huge shame-storm fueled by unhealthy and unnecessary comparison.

Do you know what the runner’s high is for me now? As my feet are pounding the pavement, I ruminate and rummage through my mental landscape of all the doubts, deterrents, and determents I’ve gotten used to thinking about myself, my life, and sometimes even the people in my life. The “Reality Debate Club” (as I now call it) gets involved; it challenges and sometimes wins against the perfectionistic side of me. (We recorded a podcast episode on perfectionism, too.

Can you relate, fellow high-expectation holders?

What’s the point of being a high performer if satisfaction only comes from surpassing your expectations??

I’m a pretty competitive person, mostly with myself, so even if I did manage to “outrun” my high expectations, we’re on to the next one. Is that not the recipe for exhaustion? No runners high, just sore emotional muscles.

I find my version of a runner’s high when I’m running. It’s when?I?audition the “truth” of the stories I’ve been stuck with for over 40 years.

When I hit my stride, it’s not the physical pacing – it’s my emotional pacing.

Most of the time, I realize that the self-critical stories I’ve been telling myself don’t hold up. Blissfully, as the kilometres go by, some of those unhealthy, inaccurate, and just plain tired stories get left behind, too. That is what the runner’s high is for me. The chance to think differently about what is possible as the wind blows through my hair and the sweat drips down my back.

By the way, if you, too, want to challenge your beliefs about your abilities in running, walking, or any version of “I’m not healthy,” maybe join a Terry Fox Run or other charity run in your community this fall.

#thisis40

The gift of midlife is being able to rewrite our own stories. This is one of the chapters I’m currently editing: “I’m not an athlete,” with a subheading of “Why I cannot run.” As I prove to myself that I get to change the ending of that chapter, I am curious about what other chapters need a rewrite. What about you? What chapters are you editing in your work and life? What ending might you be willing to start putting metaphorical pen to paper to rewrite some limiting belief stories?

For more ideas on how you can overcome self-doubt, check out these previous posts:

• Redefining Success through Disappointment and How Recognition Can Help
• The Psychology of Accountability: Why It Fails to Stick and How to Overcome It
• What You Focus on Grows (So Choose Wisely)

Disclaimer/Humble Brag Moment: 100% of this content was human-generated (by us folks here at Greatness Magnified). We are committed to authorship integrity and will inform you what percent, if any, is AI-generated.