I put up a new episode of Why We Run. This one is called The Late Bloomers Run Club, where I talk to 3 runners who didn’t start running till the halfway mark of life, then went on to do incredible things.
I started to think of when I started running and why it took me so long to get to my first 3 miles. (It took me a year to do my first 5k)
I narrowed it down to three different stories I told myself that I needed to question, put them under a microscope to see if they were true, and then discard them as a piece of self fake news.
Self Fake News #1: I am broken. When I was 14, my boyfriend at the time told me I needed to take track, cause I was getting fat. So I did. (this was before I knew where to tell jerks where to stick it.) My knees hurt like crazy and when I went to the doctor and he said that my knee caps were tilted, and I probably shouldn’t run anymore. So, I stopped, and felt like I was broken, and fat. I learned later that I wasn’t broken, and I was probably going through a growth spurt, and I was fine. I believed that doctor and boyfriend for years. I am glad I dumped them both.
Self Fake News #2: I won’t fit in. When I was in my 20’s, I didn’t know anyone who ran, and it wasn’t something my friends did. No one in my family did either, and I was so hesitant to start running out of fear of not fitting in. Which in hindsight is dumb, but it was that feeling of separating myself was a huge subconscious that it was a huge hurdle to get over.
Self Fake News #3: Quitting is easier. Even before started running, I wanted to do a marathon. I am not sure where I came up with that particular goal, but it seemed like something I NEEDED to do. What drove me was wanting to know the feeling of accomplishing something feels like. I honestly had no idea how that felt. But when I got close to the end of my training, my head kicked in and was like, “ok, this is hard, this is the part when you quit.” That feeling I knew very well. But something in me wanted to taste of that finishing, and I did. But if I didn’t question that knee jerk reaction, I would not be the marathoner I am, and my life would be very different.
So, I invite you to be curious about what your head is telling you and investigate the patterns that keep popping up for you when you are trying to reach your goal. Or maybe your story isn’t even allowing you to set goals. Everyone has these “fake news stories” in their head and it is important not to just take it for the gospel, but open them up and take a look at if they are really true. Here are a few that I hear in my head, and from my runners:
I don’t have a runner’s body
I am too tired.
I don’t have time.
I don’t know how to _______.
I don’t have enough money.
These are just a few. If you have one that I don’t have that you have told yourself, I would love to hear it.
Go get it, tiger!
Coach Beth